❓ Following a baby's death from whooping cough, the Minister for Health outlines measures to protect the community, including potential vaccination programs for pregnant women and allocation of funds pending expert advice.
AnsweredQoN 191Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WHOOPING COUGH VACCINATION
191. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for
Health:
Following the recent tragic death of
a baby boy from whooping cough, can the minister update the house on what
measures the community can take to protect itself from this infection?
191. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for
Health:
Following the recent tragic death of
a baby boy from whooping cough, can the minister update the house on what
measures the community can take to protect itself from this infection?
AnswerView source ↗
On behalf of the Parliament and the
people of Western Australia, I offer my deepest commiserations to the family of
baby Riley, who died recently from whooping cough. His death brings to the fore
the significant issue of whooping cough in our community. Some people are not
being vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated are not keeping their
vaccinations up to date. The infection is caused by nasty bacteria, and for
that reason there is a vaccination program. Children can be given vaccinations
to prevent the occurrence of this disease at the ages of two, four and six
months. It is recommended that adults continue to have vaccinations to maintain
their resistance, because the resistance wears off with time. We encourage all
people to have the vaccination. It is a particular problem in babies who are
less than six weeks old.
The
SPEAKER : Order, members! Excuse me member for Girrawheen; I am sorry to
disturb you.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The critical time for a baby is up until it is six weeks old.
Babies cannot have the vaccination before they are six weeks, which was the
case with baby Riley who just passed away. Consideration has been given to a
program to vaccinate pregnant mothers. A few years ago, there was a vaccination
program at the peak of the season for parents, grandparents, siblings or those
in close contact with children. It was a good program, but it was difficult to
administer and difficult to get into the community. A third option, which has
been in use overseas, particularly in Europe, is to vaccinate women in their
third trimester, which is the last three months of their pregnancy, because it
gives very good resistance to the baby in the first six weeks. The Australian Technical
Advisory Group on Immunisation has done an Australia-wide review and is looking
to recommend that vaccination for Australia as a whole. It was due to report at
the end of June. The government has had conversations with it in the last few
days. It has agreed to bring that forward to two weeks' time. We are
allocating funds that we have in a commonwealth trust immunisation fund of just
under $600 000. We have approved that vaccination going ahead but we need to
wait two weeks to get the official tick by that commonwealth group to say that
it is perfectly safe to do so. Then we will roll out that program straightaway.
That was for public information.
people of Western Australia, I offer my deepest commiserations to the family of
baby Riley, who died recently from whooping cough. His death brings to the fore
the significant issue of whooping cough in our community. Some people are not
being vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated are not keeping their
vaccinations up to date. The infection is caused by nasty bacteria, and for
that reason there is a vaccination program. Children can be given vaccinations
to prevent the occurrence of this disease at the ages of two, four and six
months. It is recommended that adults continue to have vaccinations to maintain
their resistance, because the resistance wears off with time. We encourage all
people to have the vaccination. It is a particular problem in babies who are
less than six weeks old.
The
SPEAKER : Order, members! Excuse me member for Girrawheen; I am sorry to
disturb you.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : The critical time for a baby is up until it is six weeks old.
Babies cannot have the vaccination before they are six weeks, which was the
case with baby Riley who just passed away. Consideration has been given to a
program to vaccinate pregnant mothers. A few years ago, there was a vaccination
program at the peak of the season for parents, grandparents, siblings or those
in close contact with children. It was a good program, but it was difficult to
administer and difficult to get into the community. A third option, which has
been in use overseas, particularly in Europe, is to vaccinate women in their
third trimester, which is the last three months of their pregnancy, because it
gives very good resistance to the baby in the first six weeks. The Australian Technical
Advisory Group on Immunisation has done an Australia-wide review and is looking
to recommend that vaccination for Australia as a whole. It was due to report at
the end of June. The government has had conversations with it in the last few
days. It has agreed to bring that forward to two weeks' time. We are
allocating funds that we have in a commonwealth trust immunisation fund of just
under $600 000. We have approved that vaccination going ahead but we need to
wait two weeks to get the official tick by that commonwealth group to say that
it is perfectly safe to do so. Then we will roll out that program straightaway.
That was for public information.
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