Search

Vaccination in pregnancy is the best strategy to reduce complications from influenza or pertussis infection in infants who are too young to be protected directly from vaccination. Pregnant women are also at risk of influenza complications preventable through antenatal vaccination. Both vaccines are funded under the National Immunisation Program for pregnant women in Australia, but coverage is not routinely reported nationally. 

At just two years old, Lucy lost her fight against flu. With your generous help, we can finally beat influenza.

New research investigating the devastating impact of the 2017 flu season by PAEDS-FluCAN, a national collaboration observing influenza in children, confirmed it was time to take action after thousands of children were hospitalised with the virus last year.

People are being urged to ensure they've had their vaccination with the 'flu season expected to hit in Western Australia within weeks.

Christopher Kefyalew Hannah Blyth Alene Moore MBBS (Hons) DCH FRACP FRCPA PhD BSc, MPH, PhD OAM BSc (Hons) GradDipClinEpi PhD Centre Head, Wesfarmers

Maternal influenza and pertussis vaccination is an important strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality in infants. Previous vaccine safety studies have mostly focused on the association between maternal vaccination and fetal death.

Estimating the temporal trends in infectious disease activity is crucial for monitoring disease spread and the impact of interventions. Surveillance indicators routinely collected to monitor these trends are often a composite of multiple pathogens. For example, "influenza-like illness"-routinely monitored as a proxy for influenza infections-is a symptom definition that could be caused by a wide range of pathogens, including multiple subtypes of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV.

In a community-based birth cohort of 158 Australian infants followed to age 2 years, the incidence rate of human parainfluenza virus (HPIV) was 0.42 (95% CI = 0.33, 0.54) episodes per child-year with episodes occurring year-round, peaking in the spring season.

The findings of this postmarketing assessment of the safety of 2 new enhanced influenza vaccines support confidence in ongoing vaccine use

Active vaccine safety surveillance leading to rapid detection of a safety signal would likely have resulted in earlier suspension of Fluvax from the vaccination programme