By: Natasha Bita, Consumer Editor
HEALTH authorities are to be alerted instantly to any severe side effects from vaccination in the first “real-time” immunisation database. The Australian Health Ministers Conference will debate Western Australia’s plan to set up an online monitoring system for immunisation, to avoid a repeat of this year’s flu-shot scare.
The proposed database would require doctors and immunisation clinics to enter the details of all vaccinations given to children, as well as any side-effects.
More than 100 Australian children suffered febrile convulsions after being injected with a new flu vaccine in March and April, and the Queensland coroner was unable to rule it out as the cause of death of a Brisbane toddler.
The Chief Medical Officer has suspended the Fluvax vaccine — a world-first combination of seasonal and swine-flu strains — for the under-fives.
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