Meningococcal B vaccine will be added to the national vaccination program if medical experts recommend it, the federal government says.
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Labor Leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday offered to work with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to improve access to meningococcal B vaccine, following the recent death of a Hobart teen from a meningococcal infection.
“Labor has been calling on your government to protect Australian children by making sure they are vaccinated against meningococcal B disease since we first wrote to you in November 2016,” Mr Shorten wrote in a letter to Mr Turnbull.
“We have made repeated calls for young Australians to be protected against this devastating disease since that time:”
However, a spokesperson for Health Minister Hunt Greg Hunt said: “Mr Shorten has become so desperate that he is proposing the Commonwealth undertake something which is illegal.”
“Under legislation made by the Australian parliament, the National Health Act, the government is not able to include a new vaccine on the national immunisation program unless it has first been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).
”When Labor were last in government, they delayed the listing of several drugs because they couldn’t manage the economy.
“Unlike Labor, we are funding all drugs recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, the independent medical experts.”
The spokesperson said the government could guarantee it would list meningococcal B vaccine or any medicine of vaccine if medical experts recommended it.
“At the moment, this vaccine is subject to trials and, once completed, will be presented to the medical experts to review and make a recommendation to government,” the spokesperson said.
It is understood the PBAC is yet to be convinced of the effectiveness of meningococcal B vaccine Bexsero as part of a population-wide program.