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This article was published on Thursday, 21 April, 2016. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.

World Immunisation Week reminder to keep families safe

Greater Shepparton City Council Director Sustainable Development Johann Rajaratnam says Australian government changes to immunisation introduced on 1 January 2016 have been very successful in increasing the number of the children presenting for immunisation.

“The No Jab No Pay and No Jab No Play regulations are ensuring that children of all ages are being protected and don’t put other children at risk,” said Mr Rajaratnam. “The government has provided plenty of opportunity for people to catch up on vaccinations if they have children who are not immunised.”

“We have seen an increase in attendance at our immunisation sessions in the last three months as people understand the benefits of being immunised, especially in relation to attending child care or kindergarten.”

“Greater Shepparton municipality has high rates of immunisation, over 90 per cent in all three age ranges, however there is still a small section of our community who are missing out on immunisation for various reasons. New arrivals often don’t have proof of immunisation or have never had their children immunised so we are working hard to ensure everyone has the opportunity to protect their families,” said Mr Rajaratnam.

Council has recently expanded the Multilingual Information Line Service (MILS) which provides pre-recorded immunisation information or connection to an interpreter. Pre-recorded information is available in Arabic, Dari, and Sudanese Arabic as well as English, and interpreters are available in 140 languages. People seeking information about immunisation can ring 1300 645 463 for the three main languages or 1300 852 586 for an interpreter.

“Council vaccinates approximately 41 per cent of all children in the municipality with 54 per cent through GPs and two per cent through Aboriginal Health Services, the remaining portion is provided by Community Health Services and the Hospitals,” said Mr Rajaratnam.

“Immunisations are free for all children up to 19 years of age so catching up on vaccinations should not be a problem.”

If you are attending an immunisation session with several members of your family who all need to be immunised please contact Council ahead of time so enough vaccine can be made available and to avoid having to come back to a different session.

If you would like more information please visit www.greatershepparton.com.au call 5832 9700 or the MILS line on 1300 645 463.

Australian Childhood Immunisation Register Coverage Report, LGA by age group, 30 June 2015. 12 months 93.1%, 24 months 90.9%, 60 months 93.2%