Community pharmacist pilot program: travel vaccines and travel advice
Pharmacist immunisers are registered pharmacists who have completed additional training in immunisation allowing them to administer approved vaccines to specified patient groups.
In October 2023, a 12-month pilot program was launched further expanding the authority of approved community pharmacists to provide advice and some travel vaccines (hepatitis A, hepatitis B, typhoid, and polio).
The purpose of this program is to increase access to affordable preventative healthcare as well as treatment for travel-related illness.
Victorian Department of Health: Victorian community pharmacist statewide pilot
Australian Immunisation Handbook: Update to recommendations for people who have recently received blood products
Last month, the Australian Immunisation Handbook updated the recommended time intervals for the vaccination of people who have recently received normal human immunoglobulin and other blood products.
The clinical guidance was updated to remove specific guidance regarding rotavirus, zoster and BCG, and to include guidance regarding live JE vaccines.
Immunisation providers should check the Handbook guidance before administering a live vaccine to someone who has received blood products or IVIG.
MVEC: Live-attenuated vaccines and immunoglobulin or blood products
New NIP vaccine program: Shingrix
As of 1 November 2023, the new National Immunisation Program (NIP) Shingrix program has commenced.
Shingrix is an inactivated vaccine used for the prevention of zoster (shingles). It has been registered for use in Australia since 2018 but until now it has only been available to purchase privately.
Shingrix has replaces Zostavax on the NIP. Zostavax is a live zoster vaccine, which could not be administered to immunocompromised people.
Shingrix is funded for:
- all people aged 65 years and over
- First Nations people aged 50 years and over
- people aged 18 years and over with certain immunocompromising conditions (history of haematopoietic stem cell transplant, solid organ transplant, blood cancer, and advanced or untreated HIV).
Australian Immunisation Handbook: New chapter on COVID-19
Today, 5 October 2023, the Department of Health and Aged Care has published a new chapter on COVID-19 in the Australian Immunisation Handbook.
In a major update, the new COVID-19 disease chapter consolidates the available COVID-19 clinical guidance material.
The chapter includes the following subsections:
- Overview
- Recommendations
- Vaccines, dosage and administration
- Contraindications and precautions
- Adverse events
- Nature of the disease
- Clinical features
- Epidemiology
- Vaccine information
- Transporting, storing and handling vaccines
- Public health management
- Variations from product information.
Australian Immunisation Handbook: COVID-19
Nobel Prize awarded to mRNA vaccine researchers
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their role in the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
Read about their work at The Nobel Prize: Discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
WHO recommends new malaria vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the new malaria vaccine R21/Matrix-M for the prevention of malaria in children.
The approval of the R21 vaccine is expected to result in sufficient vaccine supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.
The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine to be recommended by WHO. In 2021, WHO recommended the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine. Both vaccines are safe and effective in preventing malaria in children.
Malaria kills more than 600,000 people each year. In 2021, there were an estimated 247 million cases of malaria with 95% of cases occurring in the WHO African Region. Children under 5 are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria.
Malaria vaccines have taken decades to develop due to the complicated structure of the malaria parasite. Earlier this year, Ghana was the first country to approve the R21 vaccine.
WHO: WHO recommends R21/Matrix-M vaccine for malaria prevention
Misinterpretation and misuse of recent COVID-19 study
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) authors of a recent COVID-19 study have released a statement addressing the misinterpretation and misuse of their publication, BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous pathogens and Toll-like receptor agonists.
The publication has been used to claim that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and that they suppress the immune system. The research does not provide any evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines are harmful to the immune system of children or adults.
MCRI: A statement regarding a recent COVID-19 vaccination publication
Decommission of COVID-19 Vaccination Training Program
The COVID-19 Vaccination Training Program was decommissioned on 30 September 2023. From January 2021 to September 2023, successful completion of this program was mandatory for all providers delivering COVID-19 vaccines.
In Victoria, Secretary Approval from 1 October allows nurse immunisers and pharmacist immunisers to independently deliver COVID-19 vaccines, in addition to medical practitioners. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner immunisers can administer COVID-19 vaccines under the written instruction of a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or authorised midwife.
Read more on the Victorian Department of Health COVID-19 vaccine page.
BMJ: Considerations for vaccinating children against COVID-19
In July, BMJ published a literature review led by researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) including MVEC Director Prof Nigel Crawford. The paper describes COVID-19 in children, with a focus on low-income and middle-income countries, and summarises the published literature on safety, efficacy and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents.
The review emphasises that at-risk groups should be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination. According to the review, COVID-19 vaccines are effective against severe COVID-19 in children and adolescents, although there is limited additional benefit in healthy children given widespread infection-derived immunity.
For more information, access the publication and accompanying MCRI news story below.
BJM Paediatrics Open: Considerations for vaccinating children against COVID-19
MCRI: COVID-19 vaccines are effective against severe cases in children
Updated monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA
On 11 September, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved COVID-19 vaccines updated to include a monovalent component that targets currently circulating variants.
Bivalent Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are no longer authorised for use in the US.
In Australia, bivalent COVID-19 vaccines (those which target the original/ancestral strain of the virus as well as an Omicron subvariant) continue to be recommended for primary vaccination and boosters in people aged 12 years and older.
Read more in the FDA’s press release: FDA: Updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
Current ATAGI advice on bivalent COVID-19 vaccines:
ATAGI: Recommendations on use of the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (February 2023)
ATAGI: Recommendations on use of the Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (February 2023)
ATAGI: Advice on the preferential use of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for primary vaccination of people aged 12 years or older (May 2023)