National Centre for Immunisation Research and
Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS)

Director: Professor Peter McIntyre
Telephone: 9845 1433
Fax: 9845 1418
Location: Kids Research Institute, Kerry Packer Building, level 2

See also: NCIRS website and Immunisation Research in the Hospital's Directory of Services.

About NCIRS

The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS) was established at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, now known as The Children's Hospital at Westmead, by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing in August 1997.

NCIRS has partnerships with the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, NSW Department of Health and The Children's Hospital at Westmead. Core funding for the Centre is provided through these partnerships. The Centre is affiliated with the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health and the School of Public Health of the University of Sydney.

Since its inception, NCIRS has expanded considerably both in staff numbers and research activity and has gained significant national and international recognition. NCIRS brings together a group of experts and postgraduate students in public health, preventive medicine, paediatrics, internal medicine, infectious diseases, epidemiology, and laboratory and social sciences.

The Centre's primary function is to perform research aimed at reducing the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases and improving vaccine uptake, in children and adults. NCIRS provides independent expert advice on all aspects of vaccine preventable diseases and social and other issues related to immunisation. The Centre also has a strong role in providing postgraduate training and supervision.

NCIRS research and surveillance activities cover the broad areas of vaccine preventable disease burden; serosurveillance; immunisation coverage and the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register; adverse events associated with immunisation; social research and risk communication; Indigenous health; immunisation program evaluations; infectious disease modelling; and clinical research. Other activities involve evidence based support for the development of immunisation policy in Australia, and support for the development and updating of The Australian Immunisation Handbook. NCIRS also contributes to immunisation and surveillance policy and planning through its representatives on, and reports for, a range of policy and planning groups, including the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, the National Immunisation Committee and the Communicable Diseases Network Australia.

Further information on the research and surveillance activities undertaken by NCIRS can be found on the NCIRS website

Recent publications from NCIRS can be found on the NCIRS website publication page

Immunisation Resources

The resources that can be found on the NCIRS website and have been developed by NCIRS for use by immunisation providers and interested members of the public.

Resources include:

• a series of detailed fact sheets designed for immunisation providers, covering both vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine safety
• the Australian Immunisation Professionals network, an email discussion group for immunisation professionals
• summaries of presentations made to the NCIRS immunisation journal club about relevant and topical aspects of immunisation and vaccine preventable diseases
• information on vaccination coverage in Australia including estimates of childhood immunisation coverage and maps showing levels of coverage in different areas of Australia
• a decision aid to help parents/carers decide whether to immunise their child with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine
• links to other sources of information relating to immunisation and vaccines