QUEENSLAND adults will be able to visit their local pharmacy for booster shots and parents will be given electronic reminders to vaccinate their children under a detailed vaccination strategy to be released today by the State Government.
Children, adolescents and adults will all be targeted under the new strategy, aimed at boosting Queensland’s childhood vaccination rate to 95 per cent.
While the statewide vaccination rate sits at about 90 per cent, pockets of the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Torres Strait have rates as low as 85 per cent. This is below the level required for ‘herd immunity’ to protect newborns and the vulnerable.
In response, Premier Campbell Newman and Health Minister Lawrence Springborg will today visit a childcare centre to detail new vaccination initiatives, including the expansion of a pharmacy vaccination trial to allow Queensland adults to now receive the flu, whooping cough and measles shots; a vaccination app to remind parents when their child’s shots are due and $3 million in financial incentives for hospital and health services that find innovative new ways to vaccinate kids.
Currently, 80 pharmacists across Queensland have been given approval to give the flu vaccination to adults under a trial scheme that is the first of its kind in the country.
The Pharmacists Immunisation Pilot extends to diseases such as measles and whooping cough from September.
Shellwyne McGraa said it was very important to her that her sons Dylan, 8, and Brody, 18 months, were fully vaccinated in case they came into contact with children with chickenpox and measles.
“When you read that some people choose not to vaccinate their kids, it is very frustrating,’’ she said.
Source: Courier Mail