Child vaccination rates plunge

More WA parents are opting out of vaccinating their children, with the number of youngsters not fully immunised in the national program doubling over the past five years.

Medicare figures also show WA has the lowest rate of childhood vaccinations in the country for children aged 12 to 15 months and 24 to 27 months.

Nationally, the number of children whose parents have registered as conscientious objectors to vaccinations rose by 68 per cent in five years, while in WA it has soared by 100 per cent.

Dr Paul Effler, the medical co-ordinator of the immunisation program in WA, said people no longer saw the diseases prevented by vaccines and so focused on the side effects.

"I think vaccines have been a victim of their own success," he said. "If you think of a world with no vaccines, think of what disease rates in children would look like. It would be like going back 50 years and seeing what meningitis did to children, killing them and making them deaf."

In 2008-09, 7154 children nationwide were exempted by conscientious objection, up from 4269 in 2003-04. In WA, the number rose from 390 to 776. The latest Medicare figures indicate the number of children exempted from immunisation by their parent's conscientious objection will also increase this financial year. The nationwide tally was 6586 by May 18. In WA, the 693 children on the register equated to 16.5 children per week, compared with 15 in 2008-09.

Dr Effler said the rise in conscientious objections was partly because some parents had been convinced by anti-vaccine campaigners.

Medicare figures show WA had the lowest rate of childhood immunisation for babies aged 12 to 15 months, with 89.2 per cent of the 7428 children that age fully immunised on December 31, 2009. This compares with 92.8 per cent of children in ACT and 92 per cent in Victoria.

WA children aged 24 to 27 months also had the lowest vaccination rate in the country at 89.9 per cent on December 31, 2009, dropping from 91.8 per cent six months earlier.

Dr Effler said a major reason was because the State had the fewest GPs, who give 63 per cent of immunisations, per capita. He said this year's spike in bad reactions to the child flu vaccine in WA could put more parents off immunisation, but the impact would not really be felt until the cause of the problem was known.

Under the national program, children can get Government-subsidised vaccinations for diseases including hepatitis B, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles and mumps.

Parents who do not want their children immunised because of a personal, philosophical, religious or medical belief but still want to be eligible for Government payments such as child-care benefit have to register as conscientious objectors.