No abstract

This annual report, the second in the series, documents trends in immunisation coverage in NSW for children, adolescents and the elderly, to the end of 2010. Methods: Data from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register, the NSW School Immunisation Program and the NSW Population Health Survey were used to calculate various measures of population coverage, coverage for Aboriginal children and vaccination timeliness for all children. Results: Over 90% coverage has been reached for children at 12 and 24 months of age. For children at 5 years of age there was an improvement during 2010 in timeliness for vaccines due at 4 years and coverage almost reached 90%. Delayed receipt of vaccines is still an issue for Aboriginal children. For adolescents, there is good coverage for the first and second doses of human papillomavirus vaccine and the dose of diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis. The pneumococcal vaccination rate in the elderly has been steadily rising, although it has remained lower than the influenza coverage estimates. Conclusion: Completion of the recommended immunisation schedule at the earliest appropriate age should be the next public health goal at both the state and local health district level. Official coverage assessments for 'fully immunised' should include the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate and meningococcal C vaccines, and wider dissemination should be considered. This is the second New South Wales (NSW) Annual Immunisation Coverage Report. This series of annual reports provides information on trends and issues in immunisation coverage in NSW to facilitate the monitoring of NSW immunisation programs. This report uses the longstanding international practice of reporting coverage at key milestone ages to measure coverage against national benchmarks and to track trends over time. It is adapted from annual national immunisation reports published since 2009.

Over the past decade the number of recommended and funded vaccines for adolescents has increased, becoming a substantial part of the National Immunisation Program in Australia. In response, NSW has implemented disease-specific vaccination campaigns for both children and adolescents and more recently established a routine high school-based vaccination program to administer vaccines to this often hard to reach group. This paper outlines the history of school-based vaccination in NSW from its commencement in 1971 to coverage from early disease-specific programs, and describes the implementation of the current program of routine vaccination. Substantial coverage has been achieved across the age spectrum 5-17 years, highlighting the effectiveness of the school-based vaccination program in reaching large numbers of adolescents.

This comprehensive analysis provides important baseline data for NSW against which future reports can be compared to monitor progress in improving immunisation coverage. Immunisation at the earliest appropriate age should be a public health goal for countries such as Australia where high levels of vaccine coverage at milestone ages have been achieved.

Post-exposure immunisation remains an effective tool for preventing secondary cases of measles.