The health of people in Australia's prisons 2022

The prison population is at high risk of vaccine-preventable and other communicable diseases, and prison can provide the opportunity to access vaccinations (Butler and Simpson 2017).

COVID-19 vaccinations were the most prevalent vaccination type administered (472 or 57% of all vaccinations), followed by hepatitis B (258 or 31% of vaccinations). There were also 69 vaccinations for influenza; 23 for hepatitis A; 10 for measles, mumps, and rubella; and 1 for human papilloma virus (Figure 10.13).

The influenza vaccinations are seasonal; hence, as jurisdictions collected data at various 2‑week time periods throughout the year, the number of influenza vaccines provided are an underestimate of the total.

Figure 10.13: Vaccinations provided by prison clinic services during the 2-week data collection period, by vaccination type, 2022

Notes

1. ‘Other’ includes vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella, and human papilloma virus.
2. Influenza vaccinations were under-recorded, as they are usually administered according to a seasonal schedule and data collection took place at various times of the year in different jurisdictions.
3. Proportions are representative of this data collection only.
4. Excludes Victoria and one Queensland prison, which did not provide data for this item.

Source: Establishment form, 2022 NPHDC.