21 January 2020
Article from ANMJ
The South Australian government’s No Jab, No Play law came into effect at childcare services across the state this month.
From 1 January children who attend childcare require to be vaccinated. Parents now have to provide approved immunisation records to their childcare service provider.
Services include childcare centres, family day care, pre-schools, kindergartens and early learning centres.
The initiative has been introduced as part of efforts to prevent and control outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.
The state government said the changes would enable the Chief Public Health Officer to have the immunisation records needed to protect susceptible children from early childhood services in the event of any type of vaccine preventable outbreak.
SA Health’s Chief Public Health Officer Associate Professor Nicola Spurrier said children were very vulnerable to vaccine preventable disease which is why immunisation was so vital.
“Immunisation not only protects individuals but also vulnerable people in the community who are too young or too unwell to be vaccinated.
“The ability to access an individual child’s vaccination record and exclude unvaccinated children during a disease outbreak will help to protect the individual child and the wider community, by minimising the spread of disease,” she said.