Social Policy of Immunization of Children in Australia - Term Paper Example

 Social Policy of Immunisation of Children in Australia Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Social Policy of Immunisation of Children in Australia 2 Introduction 2 Social Policy 3 Key Issues 5 Legal and Ethical Issues 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Social Policy of Immunisation of Children in Australia Introduction Immunisation is very important for the health of the children and other people of a society. For children, the immunisation facilities are provided that are necessary for them in order to stay away from contagious, communicable and other harmful diseases. The immunisation that is provided to the children supports the children in their future lives from diseases and makes them healthy. There can be some adverse affects of the immunisation procedure but these adverse effects are negligible as compared to the benefits of the immunisation procedure. In Australia, there are various diseases for which, immunisation is provided to the children. The social policy of immunisation of children in Australia is developed to enable the health professionals to provide the children with necessary vaccinations for contagious and communicable diseases. The reason for the development of this policy is to make sure that the children lead a healthy life and that which is free from diseases. Due to the contagious diseases, there can be deaths and the health of all the citizens is endangered (McIntyre, et. al 2002). To avoid this threat, immunisation is essential for the children. According to the immunisation policy, the parents and families of the children that should be immunised should be informed about all the relevant details of the procedure of immunisation (Australian Government 2008). There are many groups and institutions that work for the purpose of immunisation and for the welfare of society as a whole. To implement the social policy of immunisation, there should be public awareness about the immunisation procedure, it’s benefits and it’s after effects (Burgess and McIntyre 2001). All the details that are to be given to public should be given in a comprehensive and understandable manner that appears easy to the people. The child care centers should be in full association with the Department of Health Australia (Lin, et. al 2002). There are some legal and ethical issues related to the immunisation. The families of children who are going to be immunised should consent over the immunisation procedure and should decide after knowing about all the details of the whole process. The families of children are fully allowed to ask any kind of questions that they have related to immunisation procedure (Department of Education and Children’s Services 2007). The children cannot be immunised without the permission of the families of children, their parents or guardians. The importance of immunisation procedure cannot be negated and a social policy of immunisation of children is very essential for the betterment of children. There are a number of diseases that are contagious and can come up with disadvantageous results in case of their outbreak. For controlling the outbreak of contagious and communicable diseases, immunisation plays an important role and this role should be communicated to public so that they can participate in the immunisation procedure (MacIntyre and Gidding 2001). Social Policy Vaccination or immunisation is a means of safeguarding children and people from harmful diseases that can be a cause of greater threat to their lives in the future. Because of immunisation, not only the individual who is imminised becomes save but also there are no concerns of infection because of the immunity (Australian Government 2008). Australia has a National Immunisation Program (NIP) that is there to provide health facilities to the residents of Australia from any contagious or harmful disease. Through this program, immunisation for various diseases is provided by the health professionals such as cholera, diphtheria, hepatitis, influenza, measles, mumps, pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, poliomyelitis, pertussis, rubella, smallpox, tetanus, typhoid, yellow fever, tuberculosis and many more (Australian Government 2008). For immunisation of children in Australia, there is a social policy of immunisation of children in Australia. According to this policy, the families are required to be encouraged to follow the immunisation schedule for their children security and for establishing a healthy environment; the parents of children are also educated about the immunisation and its benefits so that they can continue to bring their children for immunisations; the information of the family whose children are immunised also requires to be updated and in addition, the immunisation policy needs to be updated and assessed in terms of its efficacy by obtainment of information from health authorities (Department of Education and Children’s Services 2007). A number of procedures are required to be done according to the social policy of immunisation of children such as the children are required to be enrolled with their full details; the families of children are required to be fully informed about the details of immunisation through various communication means; the families of children are required to be informed about the updated scheduling and methodology by the support of Australian Department of Health and Ageing; families of children who have problems with immunisation on the basis of their personal factors should be fully documented; the children who are not getting treatment by the help of immunisation should be informed biyearly and finally, there should be group formation for immunised and non-immunised children (Department of Education and Children’s Services 2007). Key Issues The immunisation program started in Australia from 1920 but for the coverage of details, there were insufficient measures (Torvaldsen, Hull and McIntyre 2003). With the passage of time and with governmental and private sectors of the health department, the coverage was made possible and all the children who were immunised and who were in need of immunisation were enrolled and their full details were mentioned to get a recorded data and results of immunisations (McIntyre, et. al 2002). In the year 1996, Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) was developed that contained detailed information about immunisation, children enrolled and results of immunisation. The children that are enrolled in ACIR are under the age of seven years (Torvaldsen, Hull and McIntyre 2003). The history of Australia informs that there were various outbreaks of contagious diseases even after the start of immunisation and the reason was that the required number of children were not immunised as to stop the contagious diseases completely (McIntyre, et. al 2002). The funding required for the immunisation program is provided by the government of Australia and also the institutions working for the cause of immunisation are working under governmental instructions (Leask and Williams 2002). The government is interested in increasing the immunisation rate as to prevent people from contagious and communicable diseases that can result in innumerable deaths on the basis of harmful diseases (Burgess 2003). There are a number of institutions, groups and committees working for immunisation and its related issues such as NCIRS (National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases), ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation), NIC (National Immunisation Committee), (AHPPC) Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and many others (Torvaldsen, Hull and McIntyre 2003). National Immunisation Committee (NIC) is responsible mainly for the proposal, execution and development of National Immunisation Program in Australia (Leask and Williams 2002). The reports about the communicable and contagious diseases are sent to the National Australian Health Protection committee, which takes actions further for the health issues related to vaccination and immunisation (Burgess and McIntyre 2001). Because of the development and establishment of various institutions and committees for the health security purposes in Australia, the immunisation procedure has become much easier and accommodating. For different types of diseases, there are different after effects such as the children that are imunised can have slight fever; there can be discomfort because of vaccination; there can be inflammation on the location of immunisation; there can be pain after vaccination; there can be redness or swollenness after immunisation; there can be drowsiness and there can be vomiting as a result of immunisation (Australian Government 2008). The volunteers who are involved in vaccinating the children should be fully aware of the after effects and should keep the child under consideration for at least fifteen minutes in which, they can assess the condition of the child (Hull, et.al 2002). Training is provided to the volunteers involved in the process of immunisation about the location and areas of immunisation, methodologies that can be adopted for vaccination, safe vaccination procedures, discarding of clinical wastes and other important details about immunisation and its implications (Burgess 2003). The vaccinators should be properly aware of the details of immunisation and it is their duty to get detailed awareness according to the social policy of immunisation of children. According to the social policy of Immunisation of Children in Australia, the ratio of children getting immunised every year should increase as compared to its previous ratio that is not near to ninety three to ninety five percent (MacIntyre and Gidding 2001). Legal and Ethical Issues The families of the children must be aware of the legal implications of immunisation of their children. In addition, the authorities that are involved in the process of immunisation should be legalized and authentic. The people participating in the voluntary effort of immunisation should be fully informed about the details of immunisation and the children that are going to be immunised (Australian Government 2008). All the perils and possibilities associated with the process of immunisation should be told to the families of children who are going to be immunised (Burgess and McIntyre 2001). The families of children should be given details about the advantageousness and disadvantageousness of vaccination. The families should be fully allowed to get any kind of related information about immunisation and its implications as they have a legal right to know about all. There can be no immunisation or vaccination without the approval of the families of the children as it is legally prohibited (McIntyre, Williams and Leask 2003). The guardian or a child’s family is allowed to approve for the process of immunisation on behalf of the child because a child who is below eighteen years is regarded as under age and is unable to take his/her own decisions (Burgess and McIntyre 2001). For the people who are mentally disabled, again the right of consent for immunisation goes towards the family (Australian Government 2008). All the possible risk factors should be informed in a comprehensive manner that is quite understandable for the listener. The adverse effects associated to the immunisation procedure should be fully told to the families of children (Burgess 2003). The families of children have ethical as well as legal right to know about the benefits, after effects and other implications resulting because of immunisation because the decision that they will make after obtainment of all knowledge will be well informed and clear (Department of Education and Children’s Services 2007). Conclusion After discussing in detail about immunisation and the social policy of immunisation of children in Australia, it is quite clear that immunisation is very important. Although there are some after effects associated with the procedure of immunisation such as discomfort, drowsiness, pain, inflammation, redness, swollenness, slight fever, vomiting and some other (Wood 2003) but all the after effects are of avoidable extent and are nothing as compared to the benefits of the process of immunisation. Immunisation safeguards children from coming contagious diseases and there are less chances of outbreak of communicable diseases due to which, there are less chances of life loss on a greater scale. The social policy of immunisation of children in Australia is very significant because due to this policy, the people of Australia and the staffs working at the child care centers are aware of the immunisation and its implications. Moreover, due to the policy, the aims and objectives of governmental institutions related to immunisation are clear to the public and also the legal and ethical concerns are told to the public. All the Medicare centers have to take consideration of the social policy of immunisation of children while vaccinating children. References Australian Government 2008, The Australian Immunisation Handbook, 9th Edition, Accessed on 29th December 2008 from www.immunise.health.gov.au Burgess, M.A. and McIntyre, P.B 2001, Immunisation, the microbiologist and the public's health, Microbiology Australia, 22(2), 31-32. Burgess, M 2003, Immunisation: a public health success, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 14, 1-5. Department of Education and Children’s Services 2007, CCC-Immunisation-Children Policy. Accessed on 29th December 2008 from http://www.whyalla.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/ppFiles/CCC_-_Immunisation_-_Children_Policy.pdf Hull, B., Lawrence, G., MacIntyre, C.R., & McIntyre, P 2002, Immunisation Coverage: Australia 2001, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra. Leask, J., & Williams, A 2002, Risks and benefits of immunisation - the flip side of the coin in touch: newsletter, Public Health Association of Australia Inc, 19(3), 3. Lin, M., Roche, P., Spencer, J., Milton, A., Wright, P., Witteveen, D., Leader, R., Merianos, A., Bunn, C., Gidding, H., Kaldor, J., Kirk, M., Hall, R., & Della-Porta, T 2002, Australia's notifiable diseases status 2000, Annual report of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 26, 118-203. MacIntyre, C.R., & Gidding, H (eds.) 2001, Immunisation - Myths & Realities. Responding to arguments against immunisation - a guide for providers (3rd edition). Commonwealth Department of Health & Aged Care, Canberra. McIntyre, P., Gidding, H., Gilmour, R., Lawrence, G., Hull, B., Horby, P., Wang, H., Andrews, R., & Burgess, M 2002, Vaccine preventable diseases and vaccination coverage in Australia, 1999-2000, Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 26, 1-111. McIntyre, P., Williams, A., & Leask, J 2003, Refusal of parents to vaccinate: dereliction of duty or legitimate personal choice? [editorial] Medical Journal of Australia, 178, 150-151. Torvaldsen, S., Hull, B.P., & McIntyre, P.B 2002, Using the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register to track the transition from whole-cell to acellular pertussis vaccines, Communicable Diseases Intelligence, 26, 581-583. Wood, N 2003, Immunisation adverse events clinics, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 14, 25-27. Read More