Over 70,000 Australian children are not fully immunised, significantly increasing the risk of spreading previously controlled contagious diseases according to a new report released by the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA).

The second Healthy Communities report has found high rates of child immunisation in the broader Australian community, with over 95 per cent of children fully immunised. At the same time, there are nearly 77,000 children across Australia who are not fully immunised.

The report breaks immunisation down into 61 areas covered by the new network of Medicare Locals, measuring the percentages of children who are considered fully immunised at 1 year, 2 years and 5 years in 2011-12.

The report has found there were 32 of the 325 statistical areas in 2011-12 in which children who had not been fully immunised were most at risk of being exposed to contagious diseases such as measles and whooping cough.

In these areas, the percentages of children fully immunised were 85% or less in at least one of the three age groups. In contrast, the percentages of children fully immunised were 95% or more in at least one of the three age groups in 77 of the 325 statistical areas.

The report shows there were a number of Medicare Local catchments where immunisation rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were very high. At the same time, there were some other catchments where immunisation rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were low.

The report shows:

  • There were much lower rates of children fully immunised at the oldest age group. Among all 5 year olds, 23 of 61 Medicare Local catchments recorded less than 90% fully immunised. This was a much larger number of catchments than for all children aged 1 year (two out of 61 Medicare Local catchments) and 2 years (three out of 61 Medicare Local catchments)
  • Percentages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children fully immunised were lower than for all children. There were 12 Medicare Local catchments in which less than 80% of Indigenous children were fully immunised in at least one of the three age groups, compared to none for all children. There were eight out of about 55 Medicare Local catchments where the percentages of Indigenous children who were fully immunised in one or more of the three age groups were 75% or lower
  • Some Medicare Local catchments had several hundred children who were not fully immunised, and who could therefore catch and pass on infections to others. There are Medicare Local catchments where more than 1000 children aged 1 year, 2 years or 5 years are not fully immunised.

The report prompted blunt calls from the President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton, to increase the pressure on parents to immunise their children.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the science is in. Vaccination saves lives. Vaccination protects our children. Anybody who spreads an anti-vaccination message is hurting our children and we've got to make sure we respond to these sorts of reports and make a difference and make sure we vaccinate our children to protect them,” Dr Hambleton said.

The full report can be found here