New play explores issues surrounding vaccination

New play explores issues surrounding vaccination. Watch a video interview with the makers of 'Bind' - %0A " - By Lucy Goodchild - Thursday 3 December 2009 A new play exploring why people have a responsibility to be vaccinated against infectious diseases is touring around schools in London until 16 December. The play, called 'Bind', is the result of a collaboration between an Imperial College London researcher and a theatre company called iceandfire. 'Bind', which is funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to challenge the ideas some people have about vaccination. The play explores the idea of herd immunity: when a certain proportion of a population has been vaccinated against a disease, the people who cannot be vaccinated due to illness or problems with their immune systems are also protected. 'Bind' uses analogies such as bullying to suggest that inactivity - not being vaccinated, or not reporting a bully - can be harmful. Dr Thomas Churcher , from the Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial, who provided advice on the scientific issues in the play, uses mathematical models to understand how vaccination can help stop the spread of parasitic diseases like malaria.