CHICKENPOX and shingles cases are growing at such a rate health authorities fear a record number by the end of the year.
Case numbers are up 13 per cent across the state with 5509 people diagnosed in the past 12 months. At the same time last year there had been 4873 cases.
The vaccine-preventable diseases have appeared in significant clusters on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.
The figures were revealed as the state government moved to empower child care centres to exclude unvaccinated children.
Both sides of politics supported the plan yesterday, which will make it easier for the centres to refuse to enrol a child if their vaccinations are not up to date and the centre believes their admission could pose a risk to other children.
Health Minister Cameron Dick said the move was part of a wider push to boost immunisation rates in Queensland from 91 per cent to 95 per cent – the level needed to create “herd immunity” and protect children from preventable diseases like polio and whooping cough.
“Immunisation has long been recognised as one of the most successful public health interventions introduced in Australia, enabling community health to be maintained and protected by reducing and eradicating vaccine-preventable conditions,” Mr Dick said.
The new laws give those in charge of approved family day care services, kindergarten services, long day care services, limited hours care services and outside school hours care services the option to refuse, cancel or place a condition on the enrolment or attendance of a child who is not vaccinated or up to date with their scheduled immunisations.
Mr Dick said the new laws gave the childcare centres the ability to decide the best course of action.
“Approved services are encouraged to take into consideration a child’s circumstances when utilising their discretionary power under the Act,” he said.
“If the approved service reasonably believes the child is a vulnerable child and refusing enrolment or attendance would not be in the best interests of the child, they may choose to enrol or accept attendance if their immunisation status is not up to date or waive the requirement to provide the immunisation record.”
The changes will come into effect from January 1.
Gold Coast Public Health specialist Professor Paul Van Buynder said about half of the cases involved in the current viral outbreak were people in their over-50s with shingles, which is a serious illness that causes nerve damage. Shingles in adults is generally more severe than chickenpox in children.
“One of the sad things about chickenpox is that in many people it gets in the nerves and stays there and then when you get older and become immune suppressed or something else is going on then it comes out as shingles,” Professor Van Buynder said.
“The pain can last for months and it’s really debilitating.”
From November next year the shingles vaccine will be free for 70-79 year olds. A children’s chickenpox vaccine has been available for a decade. Vaccination has driven down numbers among young people.
“At this point we don’t have enough vaccination coverage to do enough about it in the general community,” Prof Van Buynder said. “This is not a benign disease. The vast majority of people get better but people need to be vaccinated