Immunization against Whooping Cough and Measles in Australian Children

This paper discusses the importance of immunization against whooping cough and measles in Australian children. It highlights the strict rules and policies of vaccination in Australia and the rising rates of immunization. The paper also presents the debate regarding vaccination and the criticism of compulsory vaccination policies.

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Immunization is highly recommended for the children starting right from an early age.
Immunization helps to protect the child from the serious infections which takes place in the
childhood phase. Some of which are evidently life threatening. The immunizations are
generally conducted as routines which involves the diseases like diphtheria, tetanus,
whooping cough (pertussis), polio, pneumococcal disease, meningococcal C disease, hepatitis
B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), rotavirus, chickenpox (varicella), measles, mumps
and rubella (German measles) and influenza (Australian Government Department of Health
2018). In this paper, immunization against whooping cough and measles in the Australian
children will be highlighted. This will be helpful in showing that how useful it is to vaccinate
the Australian children.
The importance of vaccination of children against whooping cough and measles lies
in the fact that both of these diseases are one of the most serious childhood diseases that
might cause hospitalization in addition to severe health conditions. It might include brain
damage, cancer and deafness and are often seen to become fatal in nature. However with high
rates of immunity, these diseases will become rare. According to the National Immunisation
Program Schedule, it is recommended that certain vaccinations are required at certain point of
times. In Australia are these vaccines are available at free of cost for all children.
Immunisation at childhood is recommended, at birth, two months (can be given at six
weeks), four months, six months, 12 months, 18 months and four years (can be given at 3
years 6 months) (Beard et al. 2016). The importance of immunization of children of Australia
against these serious infections can be perceived from the strict rules that prevails in Australia
in relation to the policies of vaccination. The Australian government has taken measures in
order to tighten penalties for parents who do not vaccinate their children. This falls under the
existing “No Jab, No Pay” policy (Baidawi, 2018). Recently the Australian government took
tougher steps by implementing policies that stipulated that Australia’s Family Tax Benefit

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Part A payments will get reduced by about $28AUD biweekly in case of each child that does
not meet the requirements of immunization (Anon 2018). The reduction in payments will act
as constant reminder for parents so that they keep their children’s immunization updated
since immunization is not only important for the individual childe but also for those with
whom they interact with. With this, the government is trying to establish a scenario in terms
of immunization where high levels could be reached so that through herd immunizations,
protection could be provide against a large spectrum of diseases, especially for the children
who lack immunization. Recent data have shown that the rates of immunization in Australia
is continuously rising. According to the acquired data, it showed that in 2011-12, 90.0% of
five year olds were immunised fully in Australia, and the immunisation rate has increased to
92.95% in 2015-16 and 93.5% in 2016-17. The national target was seen to be 95 per cent
(Ward et al. 2013). The strict enforcements of vaccinations is continuously increasing in the
Australian setting and the efforts of the government to dispel the country’s small but present
anti-vaccination mood. There were several financial incentives provided which played a role
in inspiring the families to comply with the requirements of vaccination. As seen from the
reports, from December 2015 to March 2017, there was coincidence with the introduction of
the policy and the increase of immunization rate for 1-year-olds around 1% point to 93.6%.
However, it was also seen that some 134,372 children still were not receiving vaccinations
and in such cases government reduced its benefits for the parents (Tafuri et al. 2014).
Although legislation to bar the unvaccinated from child care centres is a matter of the state in
Australia, however the federal government of Australia also had made it clear that it requires
similar legislation to pass across the country.
The debate regarding vaccination is increasing day by day in Australia. It is seen
thatat present, approximately 97% of all children on the welfare program are fully immunized
in Australia, even though there are a huge number of children who are still unvaccinated

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because of the objections of to their parents (Salmon, MacIntyre and Omer 2015. The
arguable concept regarding vaccination in Australia is that, the unvaccinated people are
putting others health at risk, thus, they don't deserve public money. This choice is generally
made by the families to whether or not immunize their children which is supported by the
policies of the public or by the medical research. There should not be any action that is
assisted by the taxpayers in the form of child care payments. By these policies the right of the
parents are being trumped by the rights of the state. Additionally the religious rights of the
people will become almost non-existent, and unless the child has had an intense reaction to a
vaccine, the parents cannot object on medical grounds (Beard et al. 2016). Sometimes
physicians and parents have intuition about the ability of a child to manage certain things. It
is quite disconcerting that having a status of vaccination as a precursor to receive financial
aid. The Australian culture puts forward the idea of “My body – my choice”, in terms of the
right to kill a baby within the mother’s womb. However when it comes to the case of
vaccines, it is not scenario and there is no choice of what enters the bodies of the children
(Tafuri et al. 2014).
Therefore from the above discussion it can be concluded that vaccination plays a
prominent role in safeguarding the health of the children in Australia therefore the country
has taken large steps in order to make immunizations compulsory in the country. This has led
to making of tightened policies like “No jab, no pay”. This can be however criticised from the
point of view of some people can the rights of the parents is being exploited. The parents can
no longer decide what is good for their children since because of the policies vaccination is
being compulsory and in no longer only a necessity.

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References
Australian Government Department of Health. (2018). Whooping cough (pertussis)
immunisation service | Australian Government Department of Health. [online] Available at:
https://beta.health.gov.au/services/whooping-cough-pertussis-immunisation-service
[Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].
Baidawi, A. (2018). ‘No Jab, No Play’: How Australia Is Handling the Vaccination Debate.
[online] Nytimes.com. Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/world/australia/vaccination-no-jab-play-pay.html
[Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].
Beard, F.H., Hull, B.P., Leask, J., Dey, A. and McIntyre, P.B., 2016. Trends and patterns in
vaccination objection, Australia, 2002–2013. The Medical Journal of Australia, 204(7),
p.275.
Beard, F.H., Leask, J. and McIntyre, P.B., 2017. No jab, no pay and vaccine refusal in
Australia: the jury is out. Med J Aust, 206(9), pp.381-3.
Salmon, D.A., MacIntyre, C.R. and Omer, S.B., 2015. Making mandatory vaccination truly
compulsory: well intentioned but ill conceived. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 15(8),
pp.872-873.

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Tafuri, S., Gallone, M.S., Cappelli, M.G., Martinelli, D., Prato, R. and Germinario, C., 2014.
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Anon, (2018). [online] Available at:
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[Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].