Bucking the health establishment: Alexander Milne and the fight for a New Zealand hepatitis B immunization program

In order to successfully combat a disease it is necessary that their exists an individual or a group willing to ‘champion’ that ailment by arguing that it is serious enough to warrant the expenditure of scarce resources. In the case of hepatitis B such champions have often arisen outside of the public health establishments that are mandated to play that role. In New Zealand it was left up to one unusual and determined man to not only discover the seriousness of the hepatitis B epidemic but to practically single-handedly force a reluctant government to acknowledge the threat and act to contain it. He accomplished this by combining high quality scientific research with unrelenting political pressure generated by appeals to the public by means of the mass media. Alexander Milne demonstrates the vital role that the concerned citizen can make even in an age of timid bureaucracies.