More than 70,000 children not fully immunised

Updated

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says anti-vaccination campaigners should be ashamed of themselves after figures released today showed disturbingly low immunisation levels across Australia.

Research from the National Health Performance Authority has found 77,000 Australian children are not fully immunised.

The study, 'Healthy Communities: Immunisation rates for children in 2011-12', measures the percentage of children who were considered fully immunised at one, two, three and five years of age.

It found 32 areas where the percentage of children fully immunised was 85 per cent or lower for at least one age group. The AMA says anything below 93 per cent is unsafe.

AMA president Steve Hambleton says vaccination rates are dropping in low socio-demographic areas, but also in wealthy city pockets.

"Central city areas in Melbourne, in Brisbane, there are pockets in Sydney, certainly northern NSW, south-east Queensland, we find small pockets in various places," he said.

"These are parents who have good information available and yet they are not vaccinating their children.

"We need to look at the groups providing the anti-vaccination messages and make sure we stop them providing unbalanced information.

"We need to say to those parents 'you need to get balanced information, protect your children and we need to do better'."

Low immunisation areas Far West NSW - 85 per cent of children fully immunised at one year

North Coast NSW - 88 per cent of children fully immunised at one year

Fremantle WA - 90 per cent of children fully immunised at one year

Eastern Sydney - 89 per cent of children fully immunised at two years

Sunshine Coast - 89 per cent of children fully immunised at two years

Perth Central & East Metro - 90 per cent per cent of children fully immunised at two years

Eastern Sydney - 84 per cent of children fully immunised at five years

North NSW Coast - 86 per cent of children fully immunised at five years

Central Adelaide & Hills - 86 per cent of children fully immunised at five years

Dr Hambleton says those spreading anti-vaccination messages are putting communities in danger, and should be ashamed of themselves.

"Anybody who spreads an anti-vaccination message is hurting our children," he said.

He says it is the first time there has been insufficient vaccination levels in certain pockets of Australia to prevent serious disease from spreading.

He says even in Victoria, which has some of the highest vaccination rates in the country, there are pockets where rates are falling below safe levels.

"Ninety-three per cent of kids need to be vaccinated to stop the spread [of disease]," he said.

"That takes into account the vaccines that don't work.

"We are nowhere near 93 per cent in probably 60 areas around the country, which is really disturbing."

Dr Hambleton says outbreaks are already occurring in areas where immunisation rates are low.

"In northern NSW, we have seen a measles outbreak," he said.

"It is no coincidence we have seen a measles outbreak in south-east Queensland. These are pockets where immunisation rates are falling.

"Generally measles comes from overseas, but it won't spread unless there is susceptible population and in both those areas, there is susceptible population."

He says parents are becoming lax because they don't realise how bad these diseases are.

"People haven't seen the devastating effects of mumps and measles," he said.

"Twenty years ago was the last case of measles I saw.

"The child was like a rag doll, it had a shocking rash, was limp in their mother's arms and their mother was terrified.

"That image is not something parents of today have seen and not an image many doctors have seen.

"If anyone has heard whooping cough in a child below six months, you will never forget it. It is an awful sound."

'The science is in'

The report noted that vaccination rates were "reassuringly high" in some local areas which had more than 95 per cent of children fully immunised.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says the report is a good resource for parents to see how their own community is doing.

"There are some areas of Australia that are really slipping behind with rates as low as 80 per cent, in some cases even lower," she said.

"The areas that have lower than average coverage are not necessarily remote areas or poor areas, they are even places like the eastern suburbs of Sydney where vaccination rates are significantly lower.

"Those communities that have lower vaccination rates, there are of course dangers of infections diseases taking hold."

Ms Plibersek says health authorities need to work with parents to help dispel their fears.

"We need to work with those parents, help them to address their concerns and remind them that the science is on this and vaccination is the safest and most effective way of protecting their children and our whole community," she said.

But she says on the whole, vaccination rates in Australia have improved over the last five years.

"We've gone from, for example, 83 per cent vaccination in 2007 to 90 per cent vaccination in 2011 of children who are fully immunised at five years," she said.

"We've seen a narrowing also in the gap between Indigenous children not being fully vaccinated. They're almost at the national average now, which is a terrific improvement."

Topics: vaccines-and-immunity, child-health-and-behaviour, diseases-and-disorders, health, australia

First posted