People with additional immunisation requirements
Some people may require additional immunisation to protect themselves and other people they come into contact with. These include:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Medically at-risk children
- People at risk of Tuberculosis
- Occupations including health professionals, care providers and people who work with animals or are exposed to body fluids and tissues
- People travelling overseas
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Children
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in Queensland require extra protection against some diseases. In addition to the routine childhood immunisations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children should receive additional free vaccines, including:
- tuberculosis (BCG)
- hepatitis A
- pneumococcal (vaccination booster at 18 months)
Adults
The following immunisations are available free for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults:
- influenza (15 years and over)
- pneumococcal (50 years and over or aged 15–49 years who are at risk).
These vaccines are recommended because respiratory diseases are major causes of preventable sickness and death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Medically at-risk children
Children with some medical conditions (PDF 144KB) may have reduced immunity due to disease or treatment. In addition to the routine childhood immunisations, these children may require additional pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations.
Premature babies (PDF, 154KB) may require additional vaccines for pneumococcal disease, hepatitis B, influenza, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and rotavirus. Your doctor or vaccine service provider will provide advice on these extra vaccines.
People at risk of tuberculosis
Some population groups and visitors to high risk countries are at higher risk of tuberculosis and may require vaccination. View the vaccination recommendations for:
These fact sheets are also available in other languages.
Occupational requirements
Certain jobs are associated with an increased risk of some vaccine-preventable diseases. Also workers in some occupations may transmit potentially serious infections to susceptible or vulnerable people (such as children, the elderly and people with reduced immunity).
It is important that employers, in consultation with employees, develop and implement policies and practices to minimise the transmission of infectious diseases in their working environment.
The National Health and Medical Research Council recommend the following occupational vaccinations. If you are unsure which vaccines are recommended for you or have any questions, talk to your doctor or immunisation provider.
| Occupation | Recommended vaccinations |
|---|---|
| Health care workers | |
| All health care workers and students directly involved in patient care or the handling of human tissues | hepatitis B influenza measles mumps rubella (German measles) whooping cough (pertussis) chickenpox (varicella) |
| Working in remote Indigenous communities or with Indigenous children | As above plus hepatitis A |
| At risk of exposure to drug-resistant cases of tuberculosis | As above plus consider need for tuberculosis (BCG) vaccination |
| People who work with children | |
|
All people working with children, including:
|
measles |
| Staff working in early childhood education and care | As above plus hepatitis A |
| Carers | |
| Carers of people with developmental disabilities | |
| Staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities for people of any age | influenza measles mumps rubella (German measles) chickenpox (varicella) |
| Providers of home care to people at risk of high influenza morbidity | influenza |
|
Emergency and essential service workers |
|
| Police and emergency workers | hepatitis B influenza tetanus |
| Armed forces personnel | hepatitis B influenza measles mumps rubella (German measles) tetanus Other vaccines relevant to deployment |
|
Staff of correctional facilities |
hepatitis B influenza measles mumps rubella (German measles) tetanus |
| Laboratory personnel | |
| Laboratory personnel handling veterinary specimens or working with Q fever organism (Coxiella burnetii) | Q fever |
| Laboratory personnel handling either bat tissues or lyssaviruses (including rabies virus and Australian bat lyssavirus) | rabies |
|
Laboratory personnel routinely working with these organisms: |
|
| Bacillus anthracis | anthrax |
| Vaccinia poxviruses | smallpox |
| Poliomyelitis virus | polio |
| Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) | typhoid |
| Yellow fever virus | yellow fever |
|
Neisseria meningitidis |
quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine |
| Japanese encephalitis virus | Japanese encephalitis |
| people who work with specific communities | |
| Workers who live with, or make frequent visits to, remote Indigenous communities in NT, Qld, SA and WA | hepatitis A |
| Workers assigned to the outer Torres Strait Islands for a total of 30 days or more during the wet season | Japanese encephalitis |
| people who work with animals | |
| Veterinarians, veterinary students, veterinary nurses (depending on type of animals in contact with) | influenza Q fever rabies |
| Agricultural college staff and students (aged >15 years) exposed to high-risk animals | Q fever |
| Abattoir workers and contract workers in abattoirs (excluding pig abattoirs) Livestock transporters Sheep shearers and cattle, sheep and dairy farmers Those culling or processing kangaroos or camels Tanning and hide workers Goat farmers Livestock saleyard workers Those handling animal products of conception |
Q fever |
| Wildlife and zoo workers who have contact with at-risk animals, including kangaroos and bandicoots | Q fever |
| people who come into regular contact with bats (both ‘flying foxes’ and microbats), bat handlers, bat scientists, wildlife officers, zoo curators | rabies |
| Poultry workers and others handling poultry, including those who may be involved in culling during an outbreak of avian influenza, and swine industry workers | influenza |
|
Other people exposed to human tissue, blood, body fluids or sewage |
|
| Embalmers | hepatitis B |
| Workers who perform skin penetration procedures (e.g. tattooists, body-piercers) | |
| Funeral workers and other workers who have regular contact with human tissue, blood or body fluids and/or used needles or syringes | hepatitis B |
| Plumbers or other workers in regular contact with untreated sewage | hepatitis A tetanus |
People travelling overseas
Immunisation plays an important role in protecting travellers against diseases that are common in some countries. Travel vaccines need to be considered in the context of your specific travel itinerary.
Immunisation needs should be discussed with your doctor or travel medical centre at least 6 weeks before you travel.
Recommended travel vaccines may include:
- measles
- tetanus
- polio
- influenza
- pneumococcal
- meningococcal
- hepatitis A
- hepatitis B
- yellow fever
- cholera
- Japanese encephalitis
- rabies
- tuberculosis
- typhoid Fever.
While most vaccinations against these diseases can be provided by your local doctor, only specially approved centres can provide you with the yellow fever vaccination.
For information on which centres provide the yellow fever vaccination, please see a list of Queensland's yellow fever vaccination centres (XLS, 44KB) or contact the Queensland Health Communicable Diseases Branch on (07) 3328 9724.
For further advice on travel vaccinations see Smart Traveller.
