Budget boost for $40m whooping cough jab program

EXPECTANT mothers will have guaranteed access to a free whooping cough vaccine, with $40 million earmarked for a national immunisation program in Tuesday’s budget.

David and Toni McCaffery: “This now means we have kept our promise to our daughter.” Picture: Luke Marsden

EXCLUSIVE: EXPECTANT mothers will have guaranteed access to a free whooping cough vaccine, with $40 million earmarked for a national immunisation program in Tuesday’s budget.

Each state and territory currently offers different whooping cough vaccination pro­grams but the federal policy will guarantee ongoing funding.

In NSW the free boosters for parents and grandparents was axed after the 2008-12 whooping cough epidemic, ­before the state government recently reintroduced the program after pressure from the Sunday Herald Sun.

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Toni McCaffery, who has been pushing for a national vaccination program.

Advocates have long called for the jab to be added to the National Immunisation Program to provide certainty for families.

Toni McCaffery, whose month-old daughter Dana died of whooping cough in 2009, has spent years lobbying the federal Government for a national vaccination program.

The mother-of-four said she burst into tears when Health Minister Greg Hunt called her late last week to tell her about the multimillion-dollar commitment in Tuesday’s budget.

“I can’t tell you how ­relieved I am,” Ms McCaffery told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“It’s all about certainty. Once it’s on the national program the states can’t take it away.

“This just gives us a consistent approach so no other family has to go through what we did.”

The cash boost will also fund a national public education campaign targeting pregnant women.

Ms McCaffery said her ­family was never warned about the illness or offered a whooping cough jab.

Baby Dana McCaffery died from whooping cough in 2009.

“Information is everything, you cannot protect your child from something you don’t know about,” she said.

“Every new family will get the warning we never got.

“This now means we have kept our promise to our ­daughter.”

Mr Hunt urge all mums-to-be to get vaccinated.

The free vaccine will be available from July 1.

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