Vaccinations: New resources to address common questions

Australia has one of the world’s most comprehensive national immunisation programs, with over 94% of Australian children aged 5 years fully immunised.

Even though the vast majority of children are fully immunised, parents may still have questions about vaccination and want to know more about it.

Two new immunisation resources are now available to help parents better understand immunisation and to answer key questions about vaccination.

The Questions about vaccination booklet provides answers to many common questions about vaccination. It is designed to help:

• parents find out more about vaccines and the most recent evidence about their safety and effectiveness.
• vaccination providers answer questions from their patients.

Copies of the booklet will be distributed to general practices shortly. You can download an electronic copy or order hard copies through www.health.gov.au/immunisation

The Australian Academy of Science has also developed a series of multimedia products to support their Science of Immunisation: Questions and Answers publication. These materials address key questions such as:

• What is immunisation?
• What’s in a vaccine?
• Who benefits from vaccination?
• How safe are vaccines (and how do we know)?
• What’s the future of vaccination?