The vaccination status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children in Far North Queensland

A survey was undertaken to ascertain the vaccination status of all 773 Abor iginal and Torres Strait Island children who were born and remained in Far North Queensland during the 1993-94 financial year. Only 42% had received a ll 15 vaccines scheduled in the first two years of life by their second bir thday. More who resided in remote communities were fully vaccinated (64%) b y then than those who lived in rural towns (32%) or an urban setting (21%) (p<0.01). The 445 children who were not fully vaccinated required a median of three vaccines to have been fully vaccinated by the second birthday. Of these, 146 (33%) required only one vaccine, nearly 60% of whom would have b een fully vaccinated if they had had the fourth (18-month) dose of diphther ia-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine. Of the 445, 143 (32%) required five or more vaccines to have been fully vaccinated. Only 26% and 36% of the childr en received all the vaccines scheduled at six and 12 months of age, respect ively, on the same day. However, the eventual uptakes of the three vaccines scheduled at six months of age were very similar (similar to 80%) and simu ltaneous vaccination with the two vaccines scheduled at 12 months of age wo uld have made a very limited (similar to 4 percentage points) impact on the overall percentage of fully vaccinated children. Considerably more than si mple and apparently logical strategies will be required to ensure that Indi genous children in Far North Queensland are adequately vaccinated. A system atic approach, with a careful understanding of the barriers to routine vacc ination and a means of prospectively tracking the vaccination status of eac h child, will be needed if state and national vaccination goals are to be m et.