[SaneVax: At the end of June 2012 all states in Australia are abandoning their whooping cough cocooning programs. This decision was made after two pertussis vaccine manufacturers submitted reports to the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) that failed to convince them the practice of vaccinating adults was an effective means of protecting infants. The SaneVax Team would like to express their thanks to the Australian PBAC for examining the evidence and making a decision accordingly.]
State ending free parent whooping vaccine
By Kellee Nolan
Parents and carers of babies in Queensland, NSW and WA may no longer have access to free whooping cough vaccines, with the program under review.
It comes after the Victorian government said on Tuesday the program in that state would end on June 30 and it was expected other jurisdictions would follow.
All states and territories except Tasmania and South Australia introduced the free parental vaccination program in 2009 to help prevent whooping cough in infants.
Victoria’s Department of Health divisional executive director Chris Brook told a parliamentary accounts and estimates committee on Tuesday that all states were abandoning the “cocooning” program at the end of June.
He said the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) had determined vaccinating parents was not effective in protecting newborns, after two pharmaceutical manufacturers made unsuccessful submissions to the PBAC.
Read the entire article here.
[…] since pertussis vaccine uptake has also increased. A Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry in 2012 led to the removal of funding of subsidised vaccines for parents as “cocooning” was deemed to be having no impact on pertussis incidence in Australia […]