Influenza recommendations for 2016

Please head to our immunisation references page for information on MVEC's 2016 Influenza vaccine recommendations.

Influenza Vaccine Recommendations 2016


Yellow Fever Update: New Yellow Fever vaccination certificate requirements

Yellow fever vaccine is required for travellers to affected areas in Africa and South America (CDC maps of Yellow Fever regions) and significant outbreaks continue (see Lancet: Yellow Fever: a global reckoning).  There have been recent changes in vaccination requirements, with many countries now accepting life-long validity of yellow fever certificate.  This is in line with WHO Health Assembly recommendations effective from June 2016, following reviews which found a single dose of the vaccine offers protection for life.

The Australian Government is adopting the WHO amendment for the yellow fever vaccine from the 16th of June 2016, with current border control processes in place until this time (Department of Health: Yellow Fever factsheet).

Clinicians can consult the list of the yellow fever certificate requirements for individual countries, including the current accepted period of validity for yellow fever vaccination certificates, on the recent "International Travel and Health" WHO publication (Yellow Fever vaccination requirements by destination)

 

 


Alert: Falsified “AMARIL" Yellow Fever vaccines circulating in South East Asia

Families often request administration of vaccines overseas, due to cheaper costs, despite unknowns regarding supply and quality of vaccines.

The WHO has recently issued a statement confirming falsified Yellow Fever vaccines have been circulating in Bangladesh.  The product is able to be identified by a number of ‘falsified elements on the packaging… as well as other inconsistencies through visual inspection”.  No serious adverse reactions have been identified, the broader distribution of the falsified vaccine is not described.  The full details together with images of the product are available on the WHO alert.

Another reason to have yellow fever vaccine in Australia is to make sure you are optimally protected at the time of arrival. As a live attenuated vaccine, it takes 3-4 weeks for the vaccine to produce protection from this serious disease.