Australian childhood immunisation coverage, assessed as at 31 March 2015

The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS) provides commentary on the trends in the Australian Childhood Immunistaion Register data for children vaccinated at 12, 24 and 60 months of age.

Page last updated: 16 October 2015

Brynley P Hull for the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases

Introduction

The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS) provides commentary on the trends in ACIR data. For further information please contact NCIRS at: telephone +61 2 9845 1435, email: brynley.hull@health.nsw.gov.au

Tables 1, 2 and 3 provide the latest quarterly report on childhood immunisation coverage from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) for all children.

The data show the percentage of all children ‘fully immunised’ at 12 months, 24 months and 60 months, for four 3-month birth cohorts of children assessed at the stated ages between January and December 2014 using ACIR data as at 31 March 2015. ‘Fully immunised’ refers to vaccines on the National Immunisation Program Schedule, but excludes rotavirus, and is outlined in more detail below.

‘Fully immunised’ at 12 months of age is defined as a child having a record on the ACIR of three doses of a diphtheria (D), tetanus (T) and pertussis-containing (P) vaccine, 3 doses of polio vaccine, 2 or 3 doses of PRP-OMP containing Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine or 3 doses of any other Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine, and 3 doses of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. ‘Fully immunised’ at 24 months of age is defined as a child having a record on the ACIR of 3 doses of a DTP-containing vaccine, 3 doses of polio vaccine, 3 or 4 doses of PRP-OMP Hib vaccine or 4 doses of any other Hib vaccine, 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine, 1 dose of a measles, mumps and rubella-containing (MMR) vaccine, 1 dose of meningococcal C vaccine, and 1 dose of varicella vaccine. ‘Fully immunised’ at 60 months of age is defined as a child having a record on the ACIR of 4 doses of a DTP-containing vaccine, 4 doses of polio vaccine, and 2 doses of an MMR-containing vaccine.

A full description of the basic methodology used can be found in Commun Dis Intell 1998;22(3):36–37.

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Results

The rolling annualised percentage of children ‘fully immunised’ by 12 months of age for Australia increased marginally from the previous quarter by 0.3 of a percentage point to 91.0% (Table 1). All jurisdictions experienced small increases in the percentage of children ‘fully immunised’ by 12 months of age. For individual vaccines due by 12 months of age all jurisdictions achieved coverage greater than 90%.

Table 1: Percentage of children immunised at 12 months of age, preliminary results by vaccine and state or territory for the birth cohort 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013
Vaccine State or territory Aust
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA
Total number of children
5,598
98,764
3,860
62,691
19,857
5,967
75,919
34,050
306,706
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (%)
93.9
91.4
90.5
92.3
91.4
91.2
92.0
92.1
91.8
Poliomyelitis (%)
93.9
91.3
90.5
92.3
91.4
91.1
92.0
92.1
91.8
Haemophilus influenzae type b (%)
93.6
91.2
90.4
92.2
91.3
91.0
91.8
91.9
91.7
Hepatitis B (%)
93.5
91.0
90.4
92.1
91.2
90.9
91.6
91.7
91.5
Pneumococcal
93.7
91.0
90.5
92.1
91.1
91.0
91.6
91.6
91.5
Fully immunised (%)
93.0
90.5
90.0
91.8
90.7
90.4
91.0
91.1
91.0

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The rolling annualised percentage of children ‘fully immunised’ by 24 months of age for Australia decreased from the previous quarter by 1.1 percentage points to 90.1 (Table 2) This drop is likely to be due to the inclusion of the meningococcal C and varicella vaccines into the algorithm to calculate fully immunised coverage for this age group from the December 2014 quarter onwards. All jurisdictions experienced similar decreases in fully immunised coverage for this age group. Coverage for individual vaccines due by 24 months remained high in all jurisdictions, except that coverage in all jurisdictions again decreased for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (by 0.7 to 1.3 percentage points). This is likely due to the introduction of the MMRV vaccine onto the National Immunisation Program Schedule in July 2013.

Table 2: Percentage of children immunised at 24 months of age, preliminary results by vaccine and state or territory for the birth cohort 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012
Vaccine State or territory Aust
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA
Total number of children
5,544
101,638
3,668
63,503
20,163
5,892
76,780
34,257
311,445
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (%)
96.0
94.9
95.3
95.0
94.7
95.1
95.5
94.5
95.0
Poliomyelitis (%)
96.0
94.8
95.3
95.0
94.7
95.0
95.4
94.5
95.0
Haemophilus influenzae type b (%)
94.9
93.5
94.9
94.2
93.4
93.5
94.2
93.3
93.8
Measles, mumps, rubella (%)
93.8
91.9
93.3
92.7
91.5
91.3
92.3
90.7
92.0
Hepatitis B (%)
95.6
94.5
95.3
94.6
94.3
94.8
95.0
93.9
94.6
Meningococcal C (%)
94.4
93.1
94.0
93.9
92.9
93.2
93.6
92.7
93.4
Varicella (%)
94.2
90.8
90.6
91.4
90.0
88.6
91.6
89.5
91.0
Fully immunised (%)
92.1
89.6
90.9
91.3
89.4
88.7
90.4
88.8
90.1

The rolling annualised percentage of children ‘fully immunised’ by 60 months of age for Australia increased marginally from the previous quarter by 0.1 of a percentage point to 92.2% (Table 3). This maintains the improvement in coverage for this age milestone. There were also only marginal changes in fully immunised coverage at 60 months of age in all jurisdictions. Coverage for individual vaccines due by 60 months remained greater than 90% in all jurisdictions.

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Table 3: Percentage of children immunised at 60 months of age, preliminary results by vaccine and state or territory for the birth cohort 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009
Vaccine State or territory Aust
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas Vic WA
Total number of children
5,382
100,561
3,559
64,904
20,337
6,418
75,318
33,956
310,435
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (%)
94.1
93.1
92.8
92.8
91.5
92.9
93.1
91.2
92.7
Poliomyelitis (%)
94.1
93.0
92.8
92.7
91.4
92.9
93.0
91.1
92.7
Measles, mumps, rubella (%)
93.8
93.0
93.2
92.7
91.4
92.8
93.0
91.0
92.6
Fully immunised (%)
93.5
92.5
92.2
92.3
90.8
92.2
92.5
90.5
92.2

Figure: Trends in vaccination coverage, Australia, 1997 to 31 December 2014, by age cohorts

line graph. A link to the text description follows.

Text version of Figure (TXT 1 KB)

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Acknowledgment

These data were provided by Medicare Australia, to specifications provided by the Australian Government Department of Health.

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