Date printed: 13/09/2018
Navigating the digital Handbook
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Structure
The Handbook is divided into sections:
- About the Handbook – includes background, how the Handbook is developed, how to use it, and what’s changed
- Fundamentals of immunisation – how immunisation works, frequently used terms and concepts in vaccination, and information about passive immunisation using immunoglobulins
- Vaccination procedures – what to do before and after vaccination, and how to administer vaccines
- Catch-up vaccination – information and tools to help you assess whether a person is up to date with their recommended vaccinations, and how to calculate which vaccines they need and when
- Vaccination for special risk groups – recommendations for groups with special vaccination requirements
- Vaccine-preventable diseases – information about the 24 diseases that can be prevented with vaccines in Australia, and recommendations for vaccination
Navigation
The home page highlights what’s new and recent updates, and links to the main Handbook sections.
The Contents page links to the main Handbook sections.
The menu across the top of the page gives you quick access to frequently used sections:
- Diseases links to a list of the 24 vaccine-preventable diseases covered in the Handbook.
- Vaccines lists all the vaccines available in Australia and selected components – filter by disease, vaccine group, audience, administration route or sponsor, or use the search box
- Recommendations lists all the recommendations in the Handbook for all diseases – filter by disease or audience, or use the search box
- Resources lists all the Handbook tables and figures, and also includes downloadable information sheets on a range of topics
Every page has a ‘back to top’ arrow at the bottom right of the screen.
Scroll to the bottom of every page to find useful links to immunisation groups, glossary and abbreviations, more about immunisation, and copyright and disclaimer notices.
Searching
Use the search box at the top right to search the entire Handbook. Filter results by content type and audience.
Something wrong?
Use the 'is there anything wrong with this page' link found at the bottom of every page to tell us if something goes is not working or should change. This will help us improve the Handbook website.
Structure of the Handbook
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.
Definitions
- ATAGI
- Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation
This document was printed on: 22/10/2018. Printed content may be out of date. For up to date information, always refer to the digital version: https://immunisationhandbook.health.gov.au/about-the-handbook/how-to-use-the-handbook.
