Tharawal Aboriginal Medical Service is encouraging patients to focus on their everyday healthcare needs after two-and-a-half years of focusing on COVID-19, by holding a special pneumococcal vaccination catch-up day.
Forty-eight patients who are over 50 received their vaccinations and were invited to enjoy a barbecue lunch at the Airds clinic last Wednesday, 19 October.
The vaccination day was the first of a number of catch-ups Tharawal AMS plans to hold.
Specific groups should get the pneumococcal vaccine including:
- routine vaccination in infants and children
- non-Indigenous adults aged 70 years and over
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged 50 years and over
- children, adolescents and adults with risk conditions for pneumococcal disease
Pneumococcal disease is caused by infection which can lead to a variety of diseases including: pneumonia (infection of the lungs), otitis media (infection of the middle ear) and meningitis (infection of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord).
Infection is treated with antibiotics.
Immunisation can prevent infection. You can find information about pneumococcal vaccines on the Department of Health and Aged Care website.
If you have questions, please talk to your GP.
