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Australian media raises alarm over meningitis

Awareness campaign linked to launch of new vaccine

   In recent months, the Australian media have bombarded their audiences with distressing stories and images of babies and young children who have died or been disfigured by meningococcal disease. Not surprisingly, this has alarmed parents, judging by reports from besieged hospital casualty departments, doctors' surgeries, and health department hotlines. Even some of the groups working to raise awareness of the disease believe that it has been overhyped. "People are panic stricken," says Elizabeth Watling, general manager of the Meningitis Foundation, an Australian affiliate of the UK-based Meningitis Trust.

Many media reports have highlighted the increasing incidence of meningococcal diseasein 1995 about two cases were reported for every 100 000 people, compared with 3.5 cases per 100 000 in 2001. But they have often failed to note that the disease remains relatively rare in Australia, which, unlike some other countries, has not had an epidemic for many years. The endemic disease is, according to national guidelines, "at low levels of incidence."

Following widespread concern promoted by front page headlines and prominent television coverage, the federal government recently announced that it would fund a vaccination programme against serogroup C, which accounts for about 33% of cases in Australia.

Public health experts support the programme, but wonder why other recommendations for changes to the national immunisation schedule have received relatively little political or public attention. Questions have also been raised about why media coverage of meningococcal disease seems more intense this winter than in other years.

One explanation is that various groups have been actively promoting increased awareness, while new vaccines have been launched. Public relations agency Porter Novelli has been working with parent groups this year to raise awareness about meningitis. Its activities, including a national awareness week in June, the dissemination of tragic stories of grieving parents, and an advertising campaign in parenting magazines, have been funded by vaccine manufacturer Wyeth.

Wyeth also provides an "unconditional educational grant" that helps fund the Meningitis Centre, established about 10 years ago by parents concerned that lack of awareness was contributing to poor management of the condition.

Porter Novelli also arranged production of a video highlighting the dangers of meningitis and the benefits of immunisation, which was widely distributed to child care centres earlier this year. It was funded by Wyeth, and endorsed by the Meningitis Centre and some other community groups.

Some health professionals believe the video, which includes interviews with grieving parents, was overly alarmist, and the Meningitis Foundation did not endorse it. "It's difficult to make such an emotional video an educational product," says Ms Watling.

The foundation has also been critical of one of the key players driving media coverageJoe Mac Manamon, who tells journalists that meningococcal disease is worse than the Ebola virus and "the most frightening disease known to man."

Mr Mac Manamon helped establish the Meningococcal Foundation of Australia a few years ago, and more recently set up the Meningococcal Association of Australia. In June, he declared an inaugural Meningococcal Awareness Week, coinciding with Meningitis Awareness Week.

Mr Mac Manamon has not personally lost family members to the illness; he became involved in the area after arranging a benefit for an affected family. Asked if the community has become too fearful, he replies: "There is not enough public alarm out there . . . it's the most frightening disease known to man.

(Credit: MATT YORK/AP) View larger version (89K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Panic pushed vaccination up the agenda

"I'm very proud to have helped create this media attention. In the last couple of years, I would have sent out probably 120 media releases to all branches of the media."

Wyeth stresses that it does not support Mr Mac Manamon's comments, and is concerned about some of the media's coverage of meningococcal disease.

"I really don't think that the way meningococcal disease is being presented in the media is at all helpful to the public health campaigns," says Wyeth's director of corporate affairs, Dr Rachel David. "People need to be aware, but not terrified, not to the point where every child with a cold is taken into casualty.

The intensity of the media coverage is a reflection not just of the variety of interests at work, but also of the values that drive news productionafter all, many other awareness campaigns never hit the front pages. A dramatic, frightening infectious disease is far more likely to capture headlines than everyday, more common causes of injury and death.

Meanwhile, Dr Tony Capon, a member of the Meningococcal Disease Committee of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia, believes a national response is needed to allay "unhelpful and unprecedented" levels of public alarm about meningococcal disease.

He says that the broader issuessuch as how to provide the public with useful health information without raising undue alarm, and the role of industry in providing such materialsmerit widespread debate.

Melissa Sweet, freelance journalist specialising in health and medicine in Australia. 

(sweetcom{at}tig.com.au)