Skip to main content. Home Immunisation. Immunisations — catch-ups and boosters. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. Immunisations and HALO Confirming immunisation history Planning a catch-up immunisation schedule Catch-up vaccinations for new arrivals Where to get immunised Pre-immunisation checklist Side effects after immunisation Reactions from extra vaccine doses Protection is not always immediate and long-lasting Where to get help.
Immunisations and HALO The immunisations you may need are decided by your health, age, lifestyle and occupation. If there is doubt about your immunisation status, suggestions include: Try to locate any immunisation records your family may have.
Contact your local council for any school-based vaccines. If you had vaccines given by a doctor or by a local council, you will need to contact the service that gave those vaccines to see if they still hold the records. Your age may be a guide — for example, you may not have been the recommended age when a vaccine became available.
This can help the doctor decide if immunisation is appropriate. If you do not have written records of which vaccines you have had, a doctor may look for scars. For example, the BCG tuberculosis vaccine leaves an identifiable mark on the skin in at least 75 per cent of people.
Planning a catch-up immunisation schedule Depending on your HALO and immunisation history, your catch-up schedule may be different to the National Immunisation Program Schedule.
For example: The time between doses may be shortened. If a person has missed more than one vaccine, catch-up doses may be given all at the same time in different arms or legs. This does not overload the immune system and ensures protection is provided as early as possible. An older child may receive a different vaccine than the one they should have received at the recommended age. For example, a child aged 10 years and over may receive the adult and adolescent form of the diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough pertussis three-in-one vaccine as a booster shot.
A person can skip certain doses or vaccines. For example, the hib Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine is not needed for a child over the age of five years. Catch-up vaccinations for new arrivals Some diseases that can be prevented by immunisation are common in other countries.
Issues that new arrivals and their doctors should consider include: Certain vaccines are not available overseas, but may be available in Australia. For example, people who had a measles vaccine overseas will be given a measles, mumps and rubella MMR combination vaccine for catch-up.
Women of childbearing age who do not have protection against rubella should have two doses of a free MMR vaccine before pregnancy or shortly after delivery. Some vaccines are not free for people holding certain visas. Refugees and asylum seekers are eligible to receive catch-up vaccines for free.
Under the National Immunisation Program, combined vaccines offered in childhood are not registered for use in adolescents or adults. Ask your doctor or immunisation provider for further information. One or two doses of MMR vaccine are available for all people born during or since without evidence of two documented doses of valid MMR vaccine or without a blood test showing evidence of immunity to measles, mumps and rubella.
If two MMR doses are required they should be given a minimum of 28 days apart. Where to get immunised Doctors and local health clinics can immunise you and your family. Pharmacist immunisers can currently vaccinate to protect people with the following vaccinations — 10 years of age and older: influenza 15 years of age and older: whooping cough pertussis measles, mumps rubella MMR meningococcal ACWY Note: There are some exceptions — talk to your GP or pharmacist immuniser for more information.
Side effects after immunisation Immunisations are effective and safe, although all medication can have unwanted side effects. Managing fever after immunisation There are a number of treatment options that can reduce the common side effect of fever after a vaccine, including: giving extra fluids to drink and not overdressing if there is a fever although routine use of paracetamol after vaccination is not recommended, if fever is present, paracetamol can be given — check the label for the correct dose or speak with your pharmacist, especially when giving paracetamol to children.
Managing injection site discomfort Many vaccine injections may result in soreness, redness, itching, swelling or burning at the injection site for one to two days. Rare side effects There is a very small risk of a serious allergic reaction anaphylaxis to any vaccine. Reactions from extra vaccine doses Generally, if there is no way to be sure whether you have been immunised, a catch-up immunisation will be recommended.
Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Vaccines for Your Children. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Risks of Delaying or Skipping Vaccines. Minus Related Pages. Before traveling, learn about possible disease risks and vaccines that will protect your family. But when parents choose not to vaccinate, they're not simply putting their own kids at risk; they're also unwittingly jeopardizing newborns, pregnant women, the elderly, and people like Julieanna with preexisting conditions.
Those populations are increasingly vulnerable as diseases that we thought had been contained start to return, in larger numbers each year.
From Edward Jenner's realization that cowpox could protect human beings from smallpox in to the introduction in the U. As recently as the s and s, it was not uncommon for kids to be born disabled or placed in iron lungs as a result of childhood infections. How did lifesaving vaccines — once greeted with relief and open arms — turn into something so feared? The current backlash dates to , when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the medical journal The Lancet hypothesizing a link between the MMR measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism.
His research, based on interviews with the parents of just 12 children, was widely criticized as speculative, but the press — and parents — seized hold. A year later, a congressionally mandated inquiry highlighted the use of thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, in some pediatric vaccines.
There was no evidence it was harmful, but the Public Health Service and American Academy of Pediatrics AAP , hoping to forestall parental anxiety, recommended its removal.
As a result, thimerosal has been absent from nearly all standard pediatric vaccines for a decade. But the action backfired: A grassroots movement, led by about a dozen "mercury moms," began promoting their belief that many cases of autism were misdiagnosed cases of mercury poisoning.
Over the past decade, dozens of peer-reviewed studies that have collectively drawn on data from millions of children have consistently found no connection between vaccines and autism. In a multiyear investigation into Wakefield's work prompted The Lancet to fully retract his paper, and the U.
Still, the damage was done, and rumors about vaccine safety have continued to spread, especially online, where anti-immunization sites argue that the shots can injure children. While one recent study showed that only about 2 percent of parents refuse all immunizations, more than 1 in 10 skip some vaccines or delay the age at which they're given.
Increasingly, these parents tend to be clustered together, creating communities where vaccination rates may have dropped below the levels needed to keep infectious diseases at bay. Some of the lowest rates occur in affluent, well-educated communities like Boulder, Colo.
But quite frankly, it's impossible to live that way. Ironically, it is the very success of vaccines that may have led some parents to skip their children's shots. When Genevieve Futrelle's 7-month-old son was due for his first round of vaccines, "I just had this emotional reaction," says Futrelle, a first-time mom in New York City.
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