AIHW Releases Report About Areas With Low Vaccination Rates And Data Results May Surprise You

A report reveals the postcodes where vaccination rates are low — and the data results may surprise you.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a report revealing the areas where you are most at risk of disease, and surprisingly, it’s Sydney’s city centre where vaccination rates are at its lowest, even though more and more parents are vaccinating their children across Australia.

One in three children living in postcode 2000 are not fully vaccinated and it has been revealed that Byron Bay, the centre of the anti-vaccination movement, has one of the worst immunisation rates in the country,

Postcode 2134 which covers Burwood has the nation’s second worst immunisation rate 72.8 per cent and Byron Bay postcode 2481 has the third worst rate at 73.2 per cent.

In the centre of Sydney, only 70.5 per cent of five-year-olds are fully vaccinated.

NSW Health Director of Communicable Diseases Dr Vicky Sheppeard said one of the reasons why Sydney city showed up as having a low immunisation rate was its transient population and low number of children. “Someone gets on the immunisation register when they are born or have a medical attendance but if they have no further vaccinations on the register we have no way of tracking them,” she said, adding that the kids may be sent overseas for a number of years or move interstate.

As the department becomes more concerned about immunisation rates in places like Byron Bay and Mullimbimby, resources have been ploughed into lifting immunisation rates there and it is succeeding.

In Mullimbimby, vaccination rates for five-year-olds have risen from 46.7 per cent in 2014-15 to 52 per cent in 2015-16, and in Byron Bay, vaccination rates rose from 61 per cent in 2014-15 to 73.5 per cent in 2015-16.

Meanwhile, data which shows the number, as opposed to the proportion, of children who are not immunised, North Western Melbourne has the highest number of children who are not immunised “” 5463.

In other areas in Australia, Central and Eastern Sydney has 4819 children who are not fully immunised; Adelaide contains 3598 children who are not fully immunised; Brisbane South contains 3481 children who are not fully immunised; and Tasmania has 1315 children who are not fully immunised at age five.

Although on a national scale, the percentage of fully immunised five-year-olds has increased from 90 per cent in 2011-12 to 93 per cent in 2015-16, while 93 per cent of one-year-olds are fully immunised and only 90.7 per cent of two year olds are fully immunised.

The government has recently implemented the No Jab No Play campaign that requires children to be immunised before they can enrol in childcare or access government benefits.

However, vaccination rates are still short of the target rate of 95 per cent which is needed to deliver the herd immunity that protects people from deadly diseases like whooping cough.

Yet, despite being home to the worst childhood immunisation rates, NSW also boast the postcode with the nation’s highest immunisation rate “” in Woonona postcode 2517 where 99.5 per cent of children are immunised.

In Western Australia, the Broome postcode 6725 has the highest immunisation rate of 99.2 per cent.

In South Australia, the proportion of five-year-olds fully immunised is 93.4 per cent and exceeds the national average of 92.9 per cent.

“Immunisation is a safe and effective way of reducing the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases in the community and protecting against potentially serious health problems,” said AIHW spokesman Michael Frost.

“The good news is that for the first time, all 31 of Australia’s Primary Health Network areas now have immunisation rates for five-year-olds above 90 per cent,” he said. “And the gap we see between the areas with the highest and lowest immunisation rates has started to shrink.”

Source: News.com.au