Immunisation Weekly Update:

22 October 2025
Immunisation

Update your Best Practice to stay compliant

It is critical that your practice has updated your Best Practice software to the latest version, Bp Premier Spectra SP1 Revision 3, prior to 24 October 2025.

This update ensures that your practice remains compliant with the new Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) reporting requirements in time for the 24 October deadline. It also means that you will be ready for the 1 November Medicare updates, including the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP), new long-acting reversible contraceptive item updates, and improved workflows for managing mental health care plans.

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Updating to Spectra SP1 Revision 3 ensures you are compliant and prepared.

The AIR has introduced an Antenatal field to:

Report more easily and accurately if a patient is pregnant at the time of vaccine administration
Improve collection of antenatal data
Supporting monitoring of immunisation coverage

The new Antenatal checkbox will be available with the following business logic:

Automatically selected if the patient is recorded as pregnant and aged 10 to 65
A warning will display if selected manually outside of this age range

This change is in addition to update to simplify the Vaccine Type field, originally scheduled for 1 March 2025, which will now also take effect on 24 October 2025.

Measles cases on the rise – Australians warned to get vaccinated

A resurgence of imported measles cases seen in recent months in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia have prompted the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to issue a reminder to get vaccinated.

So far this year, Australia has reported 133 cases – the highest number of cases for this time of year since 2019.

Half of these have been in people aged 20–34 years old, with authorities reiterating that vaccination is the best way to protect the community from illness and the spread of measles, particularly to babies and young children.

NCIRS Associate Director Professor Frank Beard shared similar sentiments in a piece published on Medscape, noting some of the practical barriers that are preventing vaccination uptake.

The interim Australian CDC’s reminder comes as health authorities in Western Australia confirm nine new cases in the current Pilbara community outbreak.

Measles-containing vaccines are an important tool in controlling the spread of the disease. In Australia, 1 dose of measles-containing is about 96% effective in preventing disease, while 2 doses are 99% effective

Source: NCIRS Weekly Jab newsletter 17 October 2025. Subscribe here: ncirs.org.au/user/register

Composition of 2026 influenza vaccines for Australia announced

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has accepted recommendations from the Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC) regarding the composition of influenza vaccines for use in Australia in 2026.

For the 2026 season, both egg-based and cell-based influenza vaccines in Australia will contain updated strains for the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) subtypes while retaining the influenza B/Victoria lineage subtype component.

The updated AIVC advice also supports the use of trivalent instead of quadrivalent influenza vaccines for the 2026 influenza season, reflecting the fact that naturally occurring B/Yamagata lineage viruses have not been detected since March 2020.

This position aligns with the ATAGI 2024 statement on the transition from quadrivalent to trivalent seasonal influenza vaccines in Australia, which anticipated the exclusive use of trivalent influenza vaccines by the 2026 influenza season.

It is also consistent with World Health Organization guidance on 2026 southern hemisphere vaccines published in late September, as reported in this newsletter a fortnight ago.