Couple in hiding with 2-day-old son to avoid vaccination: report

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — A couple have fled their home in Australia and gone into hiding with their two-day-old son to avoid having him forcibly vaccinated against hepatitis B, a report said on Saturday.

The family, including the boy's mother who was diagnosed with hepatitis B several years ago, went on the run after a court ordered them to vaccinate the newborn against the disease that can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"We gathered some things and fled the house," the unidentified father, a financial adviser, told the paper after leaving his Sydney home.

"I don't agree with the one-size-fits-all policy. He is a small baby (2.49 kilograms) and they give the same dose to babies twice his size. I just wanted time to get more...