Catch up on what’s happened in the immunisation and preventable disease landscape over the past 12 months.
The latest annual statement on immunisation in Australia confirms case numbers and vaccination rates are heading in the wrong direction.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) released their Annual Statement for 2025 earlier this week, outlining the successes, challenges and trends in vaccine use and vaccine-preventable diseases over the last 12 months.
As previously reported by Allergy & Respiratory Republic, there was a sharp increase in the number of several vaccine-preventable diseases in 2024 compared to 2023, namely influenza (365,589 v 289,154) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; 175,918 v 128,123). The number of notifications for laboratory-confirmed cases of covid fell by about 10% (301,602 v 331,623).
A trio of emerging and re-emerging vaccine-preventable diseases have also increased in number compared to last year – measles (57 cases in 2024, up from 26 in 2023), mpox (1142, up from 26) and pertussis (56,919, up from 20,119 in 2016). While there were no measles- or mpox-related deaths in 2024, five people with pertussis died – including two under the age of 12 months.
“To protect young infants, who have the highest morbidity and mortality from pertussis infection compared with other age groups, ATAGI emphasises the importance of maternal pertussis vaccination during pregnancy (recommended at between 20- and 32-weeks’ gestation for every pregnancy), and timely completion of pertussis vaccination according to the recommended childhood and adolescent schedule,” the statement read.
“The Australian Immunisation Handbook also recommends older adults receive pertussis-containing vaccines.”
The increase in case numbers can partly be explained by falling vaccination rates in children.
“Fully vaccinated coverage for children continued to decrease in 2024 at all three age milestones (aged 12, 24 and 60 months),” the statement’s authors wrote.
“The largest decrease was in those aged 12 months, with coverage dropping by 3.2 percentage points since 2020. Coverage at age 24 months decreased to less than 90% for the first time since 2016.”
Adolescents also appear to be skipping vaccines, particularly the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, which is delivered through school-based programs in all Australian jurisdictions. HPV vaccination coverage was 81.1% for females and 77.9% in males – a decrease of about three percentage points compared to 2023.
The ATAGI statement noted “concern that the coverage levels for these populations fell short of the national strategic target of 90% of all eligible people being vaccinated against HPV by 2030”.
“Factors contributing to this decline likely include vaccine acceptance issues, absenteeism, access issues due to school closures during the covid pandemic and other programmatic issues including less opportunity to receive vaccination through school-based vaccination program delivery due to the change in the HPV vaccine schedule from a 2-dose schedule to a 1-dose schedule from early 2023. Work is underway to better understand and address these issues,” the statement said.
ATAGI noted there were several ongoing challenges limiting their efforts to prevent and control vaccine-preventable diseases, including “maintaining high-quality, efficient assessment of vaccines and other immunisation products, including through disease modelling where relevant, to support development of immunisation policies and impactful, cost-effective and equitable programs that maximise disease prevention in the population” and “ensuring equitable access to [National Immunisation Program]-funded vaccines for First Nations communities and developing immunisation policies that reflect the diverse experiences of First Nations communities across Australia”.
The group stated it would “continue to monitor the decreasing coverage trends of some vaccines to inform potential additional strategies for controlling these [vaccine-preventable diseases] in Australia”.
It would also “[continue collaborating] with key stakeholders and other committees to provide a streamlined approach for appraisal of vaccines for developing immunisation policies and evaluation of vaccination programs” and preparing to provide advice “on use of vaccines for prevention and control of outbreaks or pandemics of zoonotic avian influenza disease in humans.”
The full statement can be accessed here.
