What You Need To Know About Immunisation

As humans, we’re not invincible when it comes to infectious diseases. Same goes for our little ones, even if they are young and healthy at the start. It’s important that as parents we become aware of the importance of immunisation and to ensure that your child gets all the shots needed to aid in protecting them from various diseases. Health always comes first no matter what.

What is immunisation?

In this day and age and with the amount of technology evolving and research undergone, immunisations have been proven to protect us from a numerous amount of diseases. They aid in improving the health of our children and also gives our community better protection from contracting diseases that may affect the way we live.

What are the benefits?

• Some diseases that exist in today’s world can be life-threatening. Thankfully, immunisation can help protect your child from them.
• There are specific vaccines for certain diseases and if your child receives them, they will be protected from that particular disease. For example, there are vaccines for polio, whooping cough etc and if your child receives them, they’ll be better protected from whooping cough and polio.
• Remember the plague and how it wiped thousands of people from the planet? Because of immunisation, we don’t have a huge number of “breakout” diseases coming through in our society. Not only will your child benefit from taking the vaccines, the overall health of the community will be sustained and protected.

 What you need to know about the National Immunisation Program

• The Australian National Immunisation Program is responsible for recommending and providing immunisations against 13 diseases for children aged between 0-4 years old.
• When immunisations are scheduled, they coincide with the age of your child, how vulnerable they are to certain diseases, and what are the best times to undergo certain vaccines. All vaccines have been tested and have been declared safe to take at the recommended ages.

To make it easier for you, we’ve provided you with a table to help you know what immunisations are needed for your child and at what age they need them.

  Why is Immunisation Important?

• When you want to enrol your children into childcare, kindergarten and school, there are certain requirements that need to be met with immunisation.
• It’s a requirement by law that your children’s immunisations are up-to-date when you want to enrol them for primary school. This will be a certificate which you will need to present to the school on the immunisation status of your child.
• This certificate can be automatically provided by The Australian Childhood Immunisation Register when your child turns 18 months of age and five years of age. You can also visit your local doctor and council as they can give you an immunisation certificate as well.
• If you are receiving family assistance payments, for example, the Family Tax Benefit Part A, you are required to have your child fully immunised by the end of financial years in which your child turns one, two and five years old. This acts as an incentive for parents to follow the immunisation schedule specially made for their children. If your child is not fully immunised, you will not be able to receive this money from the Australian government. For more information, you can check out https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/subjects/immunising-your-children or visit your local Centrelink or Medicare centre.
• Eligibility status is also dependent on your child being fully immunised if you are applying for Australian Government Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate.

 Do I need to take extra immunisations?

Children that are considered as high-risk need to take extra immunisations to prevent future health problems from occurring.

These include:

• Children travelling overseas
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
• Children who were born prematurely
• Children with special medical conditions like conditions affecting the immune system, any specific heart conditions or chronic lung

The National Immunisation Program (NIP) will fund some immunisations for children who pose as a high-risk for specific diseases. For example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children need extra immunisation for diseases such as influenza and Hepatitis A.

If you’re unsure whether or not your child needs any extra immunisations, seek advice from your doctor or health professional.

 Where can I get my child immunised?

There are a number of places where you can get your child immunised. These include:

• GP clinics
• Local government clinics (keep note that these only run for specific days only)
• Community health clinics and Aboriginal community health services

GPs can give your child other immunisations that aren’t listed on the NIP schedule if they do have special medical conditions. There are also travel clinics that can give immunisations for travel if you are planning on bringing your bub to your next overseas trip.

With immunisations not funded by the NIP, you are required to get a prescription from your child’s doctor in order for them to receive these particular vaccines.

In addition, there are also specialist immunisation clinics when your child has had an adverse reaction to any immunisations or considered being in a high-risk age group. You are only allowed to go to these clinics if you have been given a referral from your doctor or specialist.

What about immunisation costs?

If you get your child immunised at a community or council health clinic, you normally don’t have to pay for them. If you do prefer to go to your local GP, you may be required to pay a consultation fee, even though the vaccine itself is free-of-charge.

Some take-home tips to take when thinking about immunisations: 

• Always remember immunisations are worthwhile when it comes to looking after the health of your child and for the rest of the community.
• It’s important to follow the NIP schedule for immunisations so the vaccines work more effectively in your child’s body.
• Immunisations are needed especially if you want your kids to be placed in childcare or at school.
• Be prepared to wipe some tears! Needles suck. Let’s be real.

Immunisations are important and have proven to be beneficial for the health of our overall society. If you’re not convinced, do some research and see what certain vaccines have done as  a whole. Australia is very lucky to have a health care system that allows most immunisations to be done free-of-charge. Even though they may not guarantee full protection of certain diseases, it can certainly help your child be free from harmful diseases during their childhood.