❓ The Minister for Health outlines initiatives to increase whooping cough and influenza vaccination rates, particularly focusing on vaccinating pregnant mothers in their third trimester through midwives to protect newborns.
AnsweredQoN 997Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WHOOPING COUGH AND INFLUENZA VACCINATIONS
997. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for
Health:
Can the minister please advise what
initiatives are being taken to increase the rate of vaccinations to protect
babies from the severe health consequences of whooping cough and influenza?
997. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for
Health:
Can the minister please advise what
initiatives are being taken to increase the rate of vaccinations to protect
babies from the severe health consequences of whooping cough and influenza?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
Before I start my answer I welcome the students from Glencoe Primary School,
who are not sitting where I am told them to, so they will not be getting such a
good view, will they? I was not trying to get them into your area, Mr Speaker;
I told them to sit up there because they get a much better view of us from
where the young fellows are up there. They do not want to watch members on that
side, surely!
This is part of what the government
is doing to make things easier for people and to reduce red tape, in this case
for improving, through midwives, women's access to vaccination for
whooping cough. As members know, whooping cough is a very serious illness, as
is flu. People die from flu and whooping cough. This initiative was
particularly supported by the Hughes family on behalf of baby Riley. In fact,
the Hughes family won the senior awards at the Department of Health awards
night in the last few weeks for this particular program supporting the
vaccination of pregnant mothers.
As many members will know, we have
had trouble getting whooping cough vaccine. In the past we have had a grandparent
program in which parents and grandparents looking after children have been able
to get whooping cough vaccines, but the best time to vaccinate a child for
whooping cough is before the child is born. Children get their first
vaccination for whooping cough at two months, but there is that window of
opportunity between birth and two months when children are particularly
vulnerable to whooping cough. We know that incidence has been increasing in our
community and that vaccinating mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy ensures
that children at birth have a resistance to whooping cough. Of course, getting
whooping cough vaccine to all pregnant mothers was always going to be
difficult, so we have changed the rules and regulations around the giving of
vaccines so that midwives are now allowed to give vaccinations. A training
course is required. Now, during the third trimester of pregnancy, while
midwives are looking after the expectant mother, they can recommend the vaccine
and administer it themselves. That has made an enormous difference to the
vaccination rate and is just another way that the state government is working
with the community to make things easier for the lives of people in all areas
of our work and life.
Before I start my answer I welcome the students from Glencoe Primary School,
who are not sitting where I am told them to, so they will not be getting such a
good view, will they? I was not trying to get them into your area, Mr Speaker;
I told them to sit up there because they get a much better view of us from
where the young fellows are up there. They do not want to watch members on that
side, surely!
This is part of what the government
is doing to make things easier for people and to reduce red tape, in this case
for improving, through midwives, women's access to vaccination for
whooping cough. As members know, whooping cough is a very serious illness, as
is flu. People die from flu and whooping cough. This initiative was
particularly supported by the Hughes family on behalf of baby Riley. In fact,
the Hughes family won the senior awards at the Department of Health awards
night in the last few weeks for this particular program supporting the
vaccination of pregnant mothers.
As many members will know, we have
had trouble getting whooping cough vaccine. In the past we have had a grandparent
program in which parents and grandparents looking after children have been able
to get whooping cough vaccines, but the best time to vaccinate a child for
whooping cough is before the child is born. Children get their first
vaccination for whooping cough at two months, but there is that window of
opportunity between birth and two months when children are particularly
vulnerable to whooping cough. We know that incidence has been increasing in our
community and that vaccinating mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy ensures
that children at birth have a resistance to whooping cough. Of course, getting
whooping cough vaccine to all pregnant mothers was always going to be
difficult, so we have changed the rules and regulations around the giving of
vaccines so that midwives are now allowed to give vaccinations. A training
course is required. Now, during the third trimester of pregnancy, while
midwives are looking after the expectant mother, they can recommend the vaccine
and administer it themselves. That has made an enormous difference to the
vaccination rate and is just another way that the state government is working
with the community to make things easier for the lives of people in all areas
of our work and life.
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