Western Australia will soon become the first state to roll out free immunisation against the leading cause of infant hospitalisations. RVS is a common respiratory virus which mostly affects very young children, in some, causing sever complications. From April, infants up to eight months- or 19 months for those at risk- will be eligible for a new jab to protect them from the virus.
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00:00 When Catherine rushed her 10 week old daughter Hazel to hospital three years ago, she wasn't
00:07 expecting it to end up like this.
00:09 Her heart rate dropped and she had to be given CPR and adrenaline.
00:14 Not long after that she was taken to the Perth Children's Hospital where she was in an induced
00:17 coma for eight days.
00:19 Is Hazel well today?
00:20 Yes she is.
00:21 Now a happy and healthy three year old, Catherine says it was a wake up call to how sick RSV
00:27 or respiratory syncytial virus can make babies.
00:30 That is first and foremost very very frightening for parents but it also of course puts enormous
00:36 pressure on our children's hospital and therefore the emergency department.
00:39 Last year more than 1,000 WA babies were admitted to hospital with RSV.
00:44 The government hopes its immunisation program will prevent around 700 admissions annually
00:49 and 3,000 emergency presentations.
00:52 It's best to have it closer to birth, the highest risk of severe RSV causing hospitalisation
00:59 is in those first three months of life so the sooner you have this immunisation product
01:04 close to birth the more protection it can provide.
01:06 The immunisation will be on offer from April at birthing hospitals and community health
01:11 clinics like this one.
01:12 The government hopes it will give up to five months of protection to get babies through
01:17 the virus's winter peak.
01:19 The jab is just one of many state and federal governments are encouraging parents to take
01:23 up.
01:24 Ms Sanderson is urging the Commonwealth to run a national campaign to help boost immunisation
01:29 rates across the board.
01:30 We are seeing a very slow decline, it is concerning and we need to lift those rates.
01:36 We definitely encourage all families to try and get the new vaccine done for their babies
01:41 because we would hate to see anyone else go through what we had to go through.
01:45 The government will assess the results of this year's program before deciding whether
01:48 it will continue in future years.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]