Majority of Australians shun H1N1 vaccine

Two thirds of Australians don't intend to get vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu in the next 12 months, according to a poll conducted by MBF Healthwatch.

Reasons cited include that it is deemed unnecessary (48 per cent), that health experts are giving mixed messages about the necessity of the vaccine (41 per cent), that the threat from swine flu has passed (38 per cent) and that the respondent felt they were not as risk of contracting swine flu (38 per cent).

Thirty nine per cent of the respondents also had concerns over the safety of possible side effects of the vaccine, even though the Department of Health and Ageing and CSL, the manufacturer of the vaccine, have gone to great pains to demonstrate that the vaccine is both safe and important.

As of December, swine flu has infected 37,537 individuals and led to 191 deaths in Australia. It is also continuing to have a major impact in the northern hemisphere as it undergoes its regular winter flu season, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimating between 34 million and 67 million cases of H1N1 occurred between April and November 2009, leading to between 7,070 and 13,930 deaths.

Even so, 71 per cent of Australians intending to travel to the northern hemisphere were not intending to get vaccinated before their trip.

“We know from our research that people seem uninformed and confused about the risk of catching swine flu, its potential consequences and about whether it is advisable to be vaccinated,” said Dr Bennett, Chief Medical Officer at Bupa Australia, which is the parent of MBF.

“The best protection you can afford yourself and others is to get vaccinated against swine flu,” she said.