‘No concept of how awful it was’: the forgotten world of pre-vaccine childhood in Australia

Until relatively recently, lethal infectious diseases stalked the lives of Australian children - including my father, Tom Keneally. Vaccines have saved millions

It's 1940, and a five-year-old boy lies in an oxygen tent. He struggles for breath and hallucinates that his leaden toy soldiers are alive and marching around the room, monstering him with their bayonets.

He has diphtheria, a disease also known as The Strangling Angel. There is a vaccine, but not every child has been inoculated. The bacterial infection creates a membrane across the back of the throat, cutting off air supply.