It’s important to stay up-to-date on vaccines

It is important for all adults to be up to date on their vaccines, but this is especially important for people who are around babies.

Some vaccines, such as the whooping cough vaccine, are particularly important for adults to get if they are around babies. This is because adults can pass the infection on to babies, even if they do not get sick themselves.

Adults around babies should get a whooping cough vaccine at least every 10 years and a flu vaccine every year.

It takes about 2 weeks for the whooping cough vaccine to be fully effective, and about 2 weeks for the flu vaccine to be fully effective.  This means that adults should get vaccinated at least 2 weeks before being around a baby, to give their immune system time to build up protection.

Staying  up-to-date on your own vaccines is a great way to help protect babies and vulnerable people from serious infections.  You can check if your vaccines are up to date by talking with your GP, pharmacist or accessing your Immunisation History Statement via the Express Plus Medicare app.