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Ian Williams is a smart guy - a scientist, an inventor, a businessman - but when it came to son Alijah's health he dismissed science and behaved like a "hippy", creating a situation where Alijah almost died. "Blood is dripping from his mouth and he is saying 'save me daddy'," Williams told the Sunday Star-Times. "I was holding the hand of my kid who had an arched back, the muscles could break his bones at any second, and his heart could stop."

While a measles epidemic cannot be solely blamed on people who actively forgo vaccination - waning immunity in adults also contributes - it can be an important factor. We saw this play out in the United Kingdom in the late 2000s, when the now-debunked theory that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism drove immunisation rates down to 80%

Vaccination is the best protection against 16 major diseases and among the greatest gifts a parent can give a child. Getting your child immunized should start when she's very young, and continue through adolescence.

The medical community has called for the anti-immunisation lobby to wind back its efforts after figures showed the number of parents refusing to vaccinate their children has increased six fold. The Academy of Science, supported by the Australian Medical Association, is today launching a 20-page booklet to explain the benefits of immunisation and try to debunk common myths