Coast failing to heed vax message

THE Gold Coast has recorded some of the lowest immunisation rates in Queensland for vaccinations including hepatitis B, tetanus and whooping cough, new data has revealed.

The region recorded the lowest percentage of vaccinations in five-year-olds since 2012-13, while also reporting the lowest rates in two-yearolds for the same period.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed the Coast had consistently recorded some of the lowest rates across the state’s primary health networks.

“It’s been the case for a number of years,” University of Queensland Professor Ian Frazer said.

“It’s perhaps because there’s a large number of people who believe vaccination is unnecessary because either the diseases aren’t visible anymore or they don’t understand the significance of them.

“We accept that’s something we would like to see corrected, it’s important to keep the vaccination rates as high as possible.”

The figures also reveal Queensland children are trailing behind the rest of Australia when it comes to receiving the lifesaving Human

Virus vaccine.

The data showed Queensland reported the second lowest rate of immunisations in boys in 2015-16 with 70.8 per cent.

South Australia and Tasmania were the only states that recorded lower immunisation rates than Queensland in girls which reported 77.6 per cent for the same period.

Queensland also fell below the national average for girls between 2012 to 2017 while last year it was reported boys achieved a 70.8 per cent rate compared to Australia’s average of 74.1 per cent.

Prof Frazer, who co-invented the HPV vaccine, said the figures were reasonable.

“They’re similar to ones that have been the case for the entire immunisation program,” he said.

“The nice thing about that is that’s sufficient to keep immunity high and stop the spread of infection.”

Professor Frazer said while it would be nice to record “100 per cent coverage” in vaccination rates, experts were more concerned about eradicating the virus.

“We’re not that much below the national average, if we were running at 50 per cent I would be concerned,” he said. Papilloma