Push to give kids free flu vaccine
CHILDREN aged under five would receive a free flu vaccine every year under a push by the states to have it included in the national immunisation register.
Tasmanian Health Minister Michael Ferguson is among health ministers from across the country who will call on federal counterpart Greg Hunt to fund a national flu immunisation program for children at a COAG meeting today.
“Tasmania maintains a close working relationship with the Commonwealth regarding the National Immunisation Program Schedule, including exploring new additions on the basis of evidence and expert medical advice,” Mr Ferguson told the Mercury.
Queensland has already announced it will provide flu jabs for children next year but states want the jab put on the federally funded national immunisation schedule.
Mainland states have reported this flu season was among the worst on record.
Tasmania experienced a “moderately severe” flu season, according to Public Health. Influenza outbreaks in nursing homes and aged care facilities were responsible for multiple deaths.
Nationally, there has been more than 217,000 laboratory confirmed cases of the flu so far this year, more than twice as many as the 100,000 cases in 2015, which was the previous record year.
Under the plan being pushed by the states, children would start receiving the flu vaccine as part of their regular immunisation from age six months.
If the vaccine is included in the national schedule parents would need to have their children vaccinated against the flu to enrol in childcare and get family tax and childcare benefits.
The Immunisation Coalition has been calling for a childhood flu vaccination program, claiming children are super spreaders of the flu virus who pass it on to vulnerable grandparents.
However, the push by state ministers falls short of the Royal Australian College of General Practice’s calls for all Australians to get the vaccine free.
The move comes as a new study has found the flu vaccine used in Australia this year was not effective.
Overall effectiveness in preventing the flu was just 33 per cent, an article in the infectious diseases journal Eurosurveillance found.
The vaccine was just 10 per cent effective against the strain of A (H3) vaccine circulating in Australia, it was 50 per cent effective against the A (H1) strain of the virus and found to be 57 per cent effective against influenza B.