Experts are warning a rise in deadly diseases is inevitable if Australia does not do more to turn around a steady decline in vaccination rates. Childhood immunisations have dropped steadily for five years to hit decade lows. It is a situation experts describe as critical.
00:00Bruce and Ashley Langerland live with the impact of a vaccine-preventable disease.
00:09Ashley was six months old when meningitis from a pneumococcal infection left her with profound disability.
00:16Ash has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, she's profoundly deaf, she's never walked or talked.
00:24That was before there was a vaccine, now there is one and Bruce says it's essential.
00:29I don't want parents to have to go through this to realise that they should have got their kids vaccinated.
00:34National data shows the rate of fully vaccinated children has continued to fall over the past five years at all milestones, one, two and five years old.
00:45It's heading in the wrong direction and so we certainly can't just leave things as they are.
00:52It includes diseases ranging from tetanus to whooping cough. Among teens, HPV vaccines that prevent cervical cancer have slipped below 80%.
01:02These figures are alarming and they will reach a critical point.
01:05It comes amid polio and measles outbreaks overseas.
01:08We will see more disease in the community, greater spread of disease, more outbreaks and also more hospitalisations and potentially deaths.
01:18A national research project has found online misinformation is contributing to the problem.
01:23Other barriers include cost, difficulty finding an available GP appointment and parental distress.
01:29It's prompted calls for COVID-style pop-up clinics to help kids catch up.
01:34The government says it's finalising a new national immunisation strategy.
01:38To think that after all of the progress that's been made in recent decades that we are going backwards.
01:44I personally find that very troubling.
01:46The Australian Medical Association says the declining rates should be a wake-up call and awareness campaigns are needed.
