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Abstract
The required vaccinations are for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, meningococcal type C, hepatitis B, rotavirus, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, pneumococcal infection, and Haemophilus influenzae type B. Parents who object to vaccination on moral, religious, or philosophical grounds will receive no exemptions. Peter McIntyre, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at the Children's Hospital in Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia, says that “excluding children 4 years and older whose parents have not had them immunised from preschool education is unfairly damaging this child's educational start in life with no benefits in protecting other children who by this age are fully immunised—the only children at risk in pre-schools are other unimmunised children and Australia has very low rates of measles”. “Anecdotally, we know this has prompted better recording of vaccines and catching up immunisation, especially for children whose families may have moved often or to Australia from other countries, or indeed perhaps just not gotten around to it”, says Kristine Macartney, associate professor of paediatrics at the Children's Hospital and Deputy Director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.