New immunisation plan to tackle drop in childhood vaccination rates
It follows warnings from experts in recent months about the risk to herd immunity in Australia for some preventable diseases.
In launching the National Immunisation Strategy on Thursday, Health Minister Mark Butler will tell a communicable diseases and immunisation conference: "The new strategy comes at a critical time.
"Even though our childhood vaccination rates are still world leading, we cannot take this for granted," Mr Butler will say in a speech seen by the ABC.
The plan sets a goal of increasing immunisation uptake around Australia over the next five years by reducing vaccine hesitancy and improving access.
"Through this strategy, we will reduce the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases through high uptake of immunisation that is safe, effective and equitable across Australia," Mr Butler will say.
Several priority areas have been identified as crucial to increasing immunisation coverage, including building trust in vaccines.
First Nations communities will also be a key focus as they have lower vaccination rates than the rest of the Australian population for almost every vaccine.
"The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic … highlighted clear needs for more equitable access to vaccination, particularly for individuals with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, rural and remote Australians, disadvantaged communities and CALD communities," the strategy reads.
The public health agency focused on vaccine-preventable diseases, the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, helped develop the plan.
Its director, Kristine Macartney, said key to improving vaccine coverage is tracking public sentiment, especially in priority groups such as First Nations communities, older people, infants and children, people with disability and residents in rural, remote and regional areas.
"We can do better at ensuring that partnerships are made with the community to really share information, share knowledge and address access or acceptance gaps," Professor Macartney said.
"There's an important element to understanding an individual's journey through the healthcare system to say, is this working for you to go and get your vaccines? Do you have the information and the access and the support from healthcare professionals and healthcare system that you would like to be able to take vaccines up?"
A real-time dashboard of coverage data for all Australian government-funded vaccines has also been flagged, which could publish up-to-date coverage data by "age group, scheduled vaccines, dose, socio-demographic detail, race and ethnicity, and pregnancy status".
Vaccination experts have told the ABC that dashboard would be "best practice", if it is well developed.
A no-fault vaccine compensation scheme will also be explored, similar to broader vaccine injury compensation systems in place in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States, Japan and South Korea.
Australia implemented a claims scheme for people who suffered a moderate to severe impact following an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.
The new strategy emphasises vaccines are "overwhelmingly safe with only very rare serious adverse events", but broad compensation schemes should be accessible.
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