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Immunisation

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Health workers wearing protective suits prepare for Ebola response operations as residents gather outside a hospital in Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hospital systems pass first test after suspected Ebola case in Melbourne

Victorian health authorities are on high alert for diphtheria and Ebola following outbreaks elsewhere.

  • Henrietta Cook

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The proportion of fully vaccinated one-year-olds fell to 90.5 per cent in 2025, down more than four percentage points from five years ago, analysis released by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) on Wednesday reveals.

These diseases are on the rise. Eighty thousand children are unprotected

Vaccination rates have fallen for a fifth year in a row, leaving children unprotected against resurgent diseases, including measles and whooping cough.

  • Angus Thomson
Maia Domingas, 38, has advanced cervical cancer and lies in the gynaecology unit ward waiting to see if she is eligible for treatment overseas.

‘I can’t watch women die any more’: The remarkable tactics being used to eliminate a killer

Meet the Australian medicos taking the fight to an entirely preventable cancer killing young women, leaving children motherless and causing intergenerational damage.

  • Kate Aubusson and Kate Geraghty
President Donald Trump.

Trump orders review of childhood vaccines, calls US an ‘outlier’

The US president said his country recommends “far more” shots to children than necessary, hours after an influential vaccine advisory panel voted to lift a long-standing recommendation for all newborns receive a vaccine for hepatitis B.

  • Lena H. Sun and David Ovalle
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears before the Senate Finance Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. 

As a parent, I’m watching America’s anti-vax madness with horror

Florida’s surgeon-general has compared vaccination to slavery. It’s part of a war on science which may cost many lives.

  • Liz Gooch
Perth mother Yvonne Ardley in hospital with her son.

I took my son to the GP with what I thought was a cold. Now he is hospitalised every winter

As I sat in a Perth doctor’s surgery with my young son in 2022, I had no idea how serious his condition was. And it turns out, we’re not alone.

  • Yvonne Ardley
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Kristy Gatt with son Blake, who was hospitalised with RSV after missing the window for free immunisation.

Kristy thought this virus was mild. Then her baby ended up in hospital

Many babies are heading into winter without full protection against the leading cause of severe respiratory illness in infants.

  • Angus Thomson
In one ear .…

This disease has infected America. Australia must remain immune

Distrust in public institutions like the Centres for Disease Control has taken hold in America. We can’t allow our public health system to be undermined in the same way.

  • Peter Breadon
Measles is often characterised by a rash that spreads across the body.

‘A catastrophe of a disease’: Doctors sound alarm on spread of measles

Victoria is in the grip of its worst measles outbreak in a decade, as health experts brace for a rise in local transmission after the school holidays.

  • Henrietta Cook
Lien Tran was diagnosed with hepatitis when she was 18 and is a co-founder of the charity Hepatitis B Voices Australia.

The silent infection fuelling a rise in liver cancer deaths

The federal Health Department is proposing universal testing to ensure everyone knows their hepatitis B status, amid concerns too many people are unaware they have the disease.

  • Henrietta Cook