Vaccine preventable diseases and vaccination coverage in Australia, 1993-1998 (summary report)

Abstract

A summary of the Report published: Commun Dis Intell 2000;24 Suppl (June):1-83.

Since the introduction of childhood vaccination for diphtheria in 1932 and the widespread use of vaccines to prevent tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and poliomyelitis in the 1950s, deaths in Australia from vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) have declined by more than 99 per cent. It is important, however, that the downward trend in morbidity and mortality from VPDs is maintained and carefully monitored, and that changes are interpreted in relation to vaccination coverage.
This report aimed to bring together information from three national sources of routinely collected data on the morbidity and mortality from VPDs during the period 1993-1998 for the eight diseases then on the routine childhood vaccination schedule, and for four other diseases potentially preventable by childhood vaccination. It also examined vaccination coverage for the same period.