Immunisation rates rise

A new immunisation centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital was opened by Minister for Health John Thwaites as the latest figures show more Victorians than ever before have been immunised.

Mr Thwaites said 92.1 per cent of Victorian children were fully immunised at one year of age—an increase of four per cent since 1999—and 86.4 per cent of Victorian children were fully immunised at two, a 10 per cent improvement.

‘This is a fantastic result and above our target of reaching 80 per cent of children by age two.

‘Vaccine-preventable diseases are still with us, however,’ Mr Thwaites said.

The Royal Children’s new Hospital Immunisation Centre aims to reach children who may have fallen through the service gap and missed out on immunisation.

‘The Centre provides services for all children in the hospital—whether they are patients, siblings or visitors—and provides advice and practical help for parents and carers,’ he said.

The hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health Unit has also evaluated Victoria’s mobile immunisation services and found mobile vans were not the best way to target children overdue for immunisation.

‘On the advice of the Royal Children’s Hospital, resources will now be reallocated to public and private immunisation providers across all regions with extra funding for a systematic search of the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register to pick up children who have slipped through the net,’ Mr Thwaites said.

Mr Thwaites said mobile vans would continue to be used at special events and to react to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as the latest measles outbreak among young adults.