Healthy older Australians and many others with chronic diseases will miss out on free pneumococcal vaccination under a major shake-up of the National Immunisation Program. 

From 1 July, healthy people will no longer be offered a government-funded pneumococcal vaccine from age 65 when the threshold rises to 70 due to cost-effectiveness measures.

The justification for the change is that the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) is much greater from age 70, according to the PBAC and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).

“Because the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines reduce over time, moving the age of pneumococcal vaccination … will provide better protection as people move into older age groups with increasing pneumococcal disease risk,” the ATAGI clinical advice states.