About the Handbook
This section contains introductory information about immunisation and the Handbook.
Development of the Handbook
This section contains information on:
- contributors to the Handbook
- the cost-effectiveness of Handbook recommendations
- the process of developing Handbook recommendations
- literature search updates
What’s new / Updates
These sections outline the latest updates to Handbook chapters.
Fundamentals of immunisation
This section provides an overview of:
- active immunisation
- types of vaccines
- vaccine components
- dosage and administration
- vaccine efficacy and vaccine effectiveness
- vaccine failure
- vaccine safety
- adverse events following immunisation
- vaccine contraindications and precautions
- passive immunisation
Vaccination procedures
This section describes the processes and procedures involved in a vaccination encounter. It is divided into 3 parts:
- preparing for vaccination
- administration of vaccines
- after vaccination
Catch-up vaccination
This section provides information on catch-up vaccination. It includes:
- assessing the person’s immunisation status
- principles of catch-up vaccination
- catch-up resources
- using the catch-up worksheet for children <10 years of age
- catch-up guidelines for individual vaccines for children <10 years of age
- catch-up schedules for people ≥10 years of age
Vaccination for special risk groups
This section provides information on vaccination for special risk groups:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- international travellers
- migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia
- people who are immunocompromised
- women who are planning pregnancy, pregnant or breastfeeding
- preterm infants
- people who have had an adverse event following immunisation
- people who have recently received normal human immunoglobulin or other blood products
- people with bleeding disorders
- people who need vaccination before or after anaesthesia or surgery
- people at occupational risk
- other groups
Vaccine-preventable diseases
This section contains 24 chapters. Each chapter deals with a specific disease for which a vaccine(s) is currently available in Australia. All disease chapters follow the same format. Each chapter comprises:
- Summary
- 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
In some instances, the recommendations in the Handbook from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) may differ from information provided by the manufacturer in the vaccine product information document; these differences may be recommendations that are in addition to, or instead of, those listed in the product information.
Where a variation exists, the ATAGI recommendation should be considered best practice.