Calls to support vaccination compensation

Expert says Australia should introduce scheme similar to US and Europe.

A professor of paediatric infectious diseases has called for Australia to consider adopting a compensation scheme for those who suffer a serious adverse reaction to vaccination.

Professor David Issacs from the University of Sydney said it only seemed fair that someone injured by a vaccine, “which has been offered and accepted in good faith to benefit the community”, should be compensated by that community.

"It's certainly a better solution than having people not immunise their children and so expose the whole community to a virus," he said.

Professor Isaacs' recommendation follows an international seminar at the University of Sydney which heard from public health researchers from New Zealand on the success of the scheme in that country.

Issacs said 19 countries around the world have accepted that society owes a duty of care or gratitude to the very rare cases of individuals adversely affected. Germany, the US, Britain have all introduced no-fault vaccine compensation schemes, he said at relatively low cost.

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