Media Release

Friday, 6 November 2009

Swan Hill Rural City Council's Public Health Services is encouraging parents who have a child aged between four and five years to check their child's immunisation status to ensure they are fully immunised.

Recent immunisation statistics for the Loddon Mallee region show that only 77% of children in the Swan Hill municipality aged between 60 to 63 months are fully immunised compared to more than 95% for all other age groups.

Council's Health Co-ordinator Melanie Bennett said it was important to ensure children were fully immunised.

“Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way to protect against harmful diseases and not only protects the individual, but others in the community,” she said.

“We are asking our parents who have a child between four and five years to check that they are fully immunised and therefore protected against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough.

“We are actually seeing a significant number of cases of whooping cough in Victoria and the region,” Ms Bennett added.

Ms Bennett said it was important to immunise children with the risk of disease far outweighing the very small risks of immunisation.

“Immunisation uses the body's natural defence system to build resistance to specific infections and helps a child stay healthy by preventing serious infections,” she said.

“It is the most safe and effective way of protecting against a disease and furthermore, if enough people are immunised, the infections can no longer be spread from person to person in a community, and we see diseases such as smallpox, being eliminated.”

For more information regarding immunisation of your child please contact Council's Public Health Services on 5036 2591.