SYDNEY, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The vaccination rate for Australian children declined for the third consecutive year in 2023, new data revealed on Monday.
According to the government-funded immunization coverage report for 2023, published by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), the vaccination coverage rate declined among children at all three standard age assessment milestones in 2023.
The report found that 92.8 percent of 12-month-olds were considered fully vaccinated in 2023, down from 93.3 percent in 2022 and 94.8 percent in 2020.
Among children aged 24 months, the fully vaccinated rate was 90.8 percent in 2023 compared to 91.0 and 92.1 percent in 2022 and 2020, respectively.
For children aged 60 months, or five years, 93.3 percent were considered fully vaccinated in 2023, down from 93.4 percent in 2022 and 94.8 percent in 2020.
The NCIRS said that the decline comes after eight years of generally increasing vaccine coverage prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frank Beard, associate director of surveillance, coverage, evaluation and social science at the Sydney-based NCIRS, said that the vaccination rate in Australia is still relatively high by global standards but described the trend as concerning.
"It is therefore critical to identify the barriers to vaccination uptake and implement evidence-based approaches to address them," he said in a media release. "Such insights will help inform strategies aimed at reversing these downward trends and protecting more Australians from the serious and sometimes life-threatening infections that can result from vaccine-preventable diseases."
The same report found modest declines in the vaccination rate for Australian adolescents between 2022 and 2023. In 2023, 72.8 percent of Australian 17-year-olds had received at least one dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine compared to 75.9 percent in 2022.
For adults, coverage increased for pneumococcal vaccine but declined for influenza vaccine across all age groups. ■
