Lower vaccine rates put wealthy areas at risk of disease Mosman and some of Sydney's wealthiest areas have such low immunisation rates experts fear children could be at risk from deadly but preventable diseases. The prestigious northern and eastern suburbs, Manly and inner Sydney are four of the nine NSW local areas listed by the National Health Performance Authority as being "at risk" of outbreaks because of low vaccination rates. There's been slight increases in the population of people who are somewhat sceptical ... I think that's a misplaced scepticism. Experts say wealthy families are unswayed by government tax benefits linked to immunisation, and often forgo finishing their children's vaccine schedule because of things such as overseas holidays. Particularly concerned about immunisation levels on the north coast: Dr. Jeremy McAnulty. Photo: Lisa Wiltse There is also a worrying undercurrent of vaccine objectors who believe conspiracy websites and reject public health guidelines. Authority chief executive Diane Watson said there were about 77,000 children who were not fully immunised, and 32 local communities at risk of outbreak. "These are remote areas, regional areas and urban areas ... they are in high-income communities, low-income communities," she said. We do know these children are at increased risk of catching diseases such as measles and whooping cough. Rates in many indigenous communities were particularly worrying. In NSW immunisation rates were at risky levels for children at age one, two and five in the coastal areas of the Richmond Valley, including Byron Bay and Lennox Heads. Other at-risk areas with immunisation rates at 85 per cent or below, most commonly among five-year-olds, include the Sydney inner city -stretches from Darling Harbour to St Peters and Rosebery - the Richmond Valley hinterland, the south coast, the Blue Mountains and Kempsey-Nambucca. A deputy director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Rob Menzies, said in some wealthy suburbs parents believed websites over health authorities. "There's been slight increases in the population of people who are somewhat sceptical or not completely supportive of immunisation," he said. NSW Health's head of health protection, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said levels of vaccine-refusal were particularly worrying on the north coast. "But in other places, for example eastern Sydney, there's much more affluence and [overseas] travel, so from what we understand ... a fair proportion have travelled overseas and started vaccination but not finished it," he said. An associate professor in the school of public health at the University of Sydney, Julie Leask, said parents should not assume that unvaccinated children were safe. "I think this is a warning to the community that we can't rely on having herd immunity .. so it's even more important that these kids are up to date and parents who have hesitance about immunisation reconsider their decision," she said. Australian Medical Association NSW president Brian Owler was concerned people were being influenced by anti-immunisation groups such as the Australian Vaccination Network and some alternative medicine practitioners. "In some ways it's counter-intuitive because you would think that for people who have done good research the evidence is clearly in favour of immunisation," he said.