About 3.9 million Australians, or about 18% of the population,
had been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus by the end of February
2010, according to a survey undertaken by the Australian Institute
of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The percentage of adults (18 years
and over) vaccinated was 21%.
The report of the survey, 2010 Pandemic Vaccination Survey:
summary results, provides estimates of the H1N1 09 (otherwise
known as swine flu) vaccination uptake, along with the motivation
for, and barriers to, vaccination.
Some of the reasons why people wanted to get vaccinated included
the seriousness of swine flu (25%), doctor's advice (17%),
employment-related reasons (14%) and being in an 'at risk' group
(11%).
'Of those who had not been vaccinated, more than 1 in 4 adults
intended to get vaccinated before this winter,' said AIHW Director,
Dr Penny Allbon.
However, more than half of all adult Australians (56%) had not
been vaccinated, and were not intending to get vaccinated against
swine flu before the 2010 flu season.
The main reasons reported for not getting vaccinated included a
perception that swine flu was not a serious risk to their own
health (26.7%), the vaccine had problems (15.7%), vaccination was
not a priority for them (10.9%) and the threat of swine flu had
already passed (11.6%).
'From the survey results, there appears to be some state
variation in vaccination uptake,' Dr Allbon said.
'Tasmania had the highest vaccination uptake at 23.5%, while
Western Australia had the lowest, at 15.0%.'
The H1N1 09 influenza vaccine was available free of charge in
Australia from the end of September 2009. At the time of release it
was approved for people aged 10 years and older, and was approved
for children aged 6 months to 9 years from December 2009.
All people were eligible for vaccination, and it was strongly
recommended for pregnant women, parents and guardians of infants,
people with underlying chronic conditions, people who were severely
obese, Indigenous Australians, and health and community care
workers.
'Of these "at risk" groups, significantly higher vaccination
uptake than the general population was seen among people with
underlying chronic conditions (34.7%) and health and community care
workers (29.5%),' Dr Allbon said.
Canberra, 10 September 2010
Further information: Dr Penny Allbon, AIHW,
tel. 02 6244 1100, mob. 0418 454 924
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer 02 6244 1032
2010 Pandemic Vaccination Survey: summary results
Report summaryFull report