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Australia at ‘critical juncture in its immunisation trajectory’
As vaccination rates continue to fall, ATAGI is eyeing GPs to help spark a turnaround, leaning on the GP-patient relationship.
More than 470,000 cases of influenza have been reported in Australia this year – the highest on record.
Experts have called on GPs to help bolster Australia’s declining immunisation rates, advocating for doctors to conduct an ‘opportunistic review of every patient’s vaccination status’.
A November meeting of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) discussed the post-COVID-19 drop in immunisation rates, 2025’s record flu season, and how GPs specifically can help improve vaccination coverage.
As well as reviewing patients’ vaccination status, ATAGI is also calling on doctors to ensure timely child and maternal vaccinations, reminding GPs:
- the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) catch-up is now funded for all adults born from 1966 onwards who have less than two doses on the Australian Immunisation Register
- infants over six months who are travelling internationally are now funded to have an additional MMR dose.
ATAGI says the decline in immunisation has led to an increasing risk of measles cases and outbreaks, the highest rates of pertussis cases since the pandemic, and a large number of under-vaccinated Australians, with children being at high risk.
The group also discussed the impact of influenza throughout 2025, with
more than 470,000 cases reported so far this year – the highest on record.
ATAGI says it expects the intranasal influenza product, FluMist, could help flip the downward trend, particularly in young Australians, when it becomes available in 2026.
The advice comes as the Australian Medical Association’s (AMA)
From coverage to concern: A policy analysis of Australia’s immunisation decline report raises concerns about the worrying drop in vaccination rates.
It describes Australia as being at a ‘critical juncture in its immunisation trajectory’ and emphasises GPs are a crucial part of the solution.
‘Reversing these trends requires a coordinated, national response that strengthens data integrity, accelerates vaccine assessment and listing processes, invests in community-led engagement, and modernises funding to support team-based preventive care – particularly within general practice, where trusted relationships remain central to vaccine confidence,’ it said.
GP and AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said ‘GPs are uniquely placed to help turn the tide’.
‘They are trusted voices in their communities and play a pivotal role in encouraging vaccination,’ she said.
Dr Michael Tam, a member of the RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care, said immunisation is core business for GPs, who have long been ‘a critical part of Australia’s immunisation strategy’.
‘The vast majority of all routine vaccines in the National Immunisation Program, as well as vaccination in pandemics … are delivered through community GP clinics, by specialist GPs and their teams, especially primary care nurses,’ he told
newsGP.
‘Many people have questions about vaccines and immunisations, even when they are not vaccine-hesitant, and one of the best places to have those questions heard, discussed, and answered, is with their regular trusted GP who knows their overall health, in the context of a longitudinal relationship.’
Dr Tam also believes greater investment is needed to support the role of practice nurses in immunisation.
‘In many GP teams, the practice nurse is the critical person delegated to manage immunisation of the practice population,’ he said.
‘This is not only as a pair of hands giving the injection and providing the clinical care to the patient, but managing and ordering stocks, auditing the cold chain, and implementing the recall system.
‘How any single clinic has organised the roles is varied, but practice nurses are often key. However, there is presently no specific and meaningful funding from any of the Governments for this very important role, other than the funding for the vaccines on the NIP.’
While vaccine hesitancy and mistrust might be contributing to the downward trend in immunisation rates, Dr Tam said there is also another factor – ‘the increase in poverty and income inequality in recent years’.
‘The financial costs to accessing healthcare are a practical barrier and might even be the more important factor in declining immunisation rates in Australia compared to vaccine hesitancy in many population groups,’ he said.
Yet access is where continuity of care comes in, and Dr Tam says evidence suggests continuity ‘provides a lot of the benefits in terms of chronic disease care and preventive health’.
‘As a narrative, a person might seek care for an acute health issue, let’s say a urinary tract infection, however, when the person seeks that care from their regular GP, they are much more likely to convert that acute health visit to one that also explores preventive health,’ he said.
‘They are also likely to know that the child of this person lives with asthma, and so, start the conversation about annual flu immunisation.’
The attention on national immunisation rates comes as Australia’s vaccine manufacturing capability was given a major boost this month with the opening of the Southern Hemisphere’s first cell-based vaccine manufacturing facility in Victoria.
The plant is on track to commence operations from the start of 2026 for influenza vaccines, and the middle of next year for antivenoms and Q fever vaccines.
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