General information
This guide is based on publicly available information from official sources, including the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Services Australia, Healthdirect and other Australian Government health and pharmacy bodies. It is general information, not personal medical advice, and may change over time. With any medicine, always read the label and use only as directed, and if symptoms persist see your doctor or health care professional. Check anything that affects you with your pharmacist or GP. In an emergency, call 000.
Yellow fever is different from other travel vaccines: under World Health Organization (WHO) rules applied through Australia's national yellow fever guidelines, only an accredited Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre can give the vaccine and issue the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) that some countries check at the border. Only primary care practices can be approved as centres, and only medical practitioners and nurse practitioners can be accredited to give the vaccine, according to the National Guidelines for Yellow Fever Vaccination Centres and Providers, so you will not usually find it at a community pharmacy. For the wider picture, our guide to the Australian Immunisation Register explains how your other vaccinations are recorded.
Why you need an accredited centre
The reason is a regulatory rule rather than a clinical one. An accredited centre must be approved by the relevant state or territory health authority, be authorised to issue an ICVP carrying the centre's official stamp, and meet the National Guidelines for Yellow Fever Vaccination Centres on vaccine storage, record-keeping, and provider training. Centres are primary care practices, for example travel-medicine clinics and some general practitioner (GP) practices. State and territory health departments publish lists or search tools of approved centres, including NSW Health, Queensland Health and the Victorian Department of Health, and the Australian Immunisation Handbook sets out the clinical detail.
When you need proof of vaccination
There are two reasons to be vaccinated. The first is that your destination requires it: several countries in South America and sub-Saharan Africa ask arriving travellers for proof, and Smartraveller, the Australian Government's travel-advice service, publishes the current country-by-country requirements. The second is transit, as some countries ask for proof from a traveller who has recently been in, or passed through, a yellow fever country, and the rules for airport transits vary from country to country. There is a rule for coming home too, though a softer one: the Australian Immunisation Handbook says Australia strongly recommends a valid ICVP for travellers older than 1 who arrive within 6 days of leaving a declared yellow fever country where they stayed overnight or longer in an at-risk area, and a traveller without one is still admitted and given yellow fever information at the border. Because these lists change, Smartraveller and the destination's official entry requirements are the sources to check close to departure.
The ICVP, and why an immunisation record will not do
The ICVP is a yellow certificate issued at the time of vaccination, carrying the centre's official stamp and the vaccinating clinician's signature. Under the WHO's 2016 update, adopted in Australia from 16 June 2016, a single dose is valid for the life of the person, so a certificate from an earlier trip stays valid even if it shows an old expiry date.
An Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) statement, the national record of your vaccinations, does not meet a border yellow fever requirement. Under the yellow fever entry rules, only the stamped ICVP does.
How to get vaccinated and certified
Once you know you need it, the process runs in four steps.
If the nearest accredited centre is far away, it is worth planning early and leaving extra time, and some people book their dose at a stopover capital city. Where you also need other travel vaccinations, many accredited centres can give them at the same visit.
If you cannot have the vaccine
Yellow fever vaccine is a live vaccine, and the Australian Immunisation Handbook lists the people who should not have it, including those with severe immune compromise, some current cancer treatments, a known severe allergy to a vaccine component, and infants under nine months, with pregnancy assessed case by case. Where a clinician at an accredited centre confirms a recognised reason, the centre can issue a medical exemption letter on its letterhead, carrying the centre's official stamp, and the Australian Immunisation Handbook notes that the letter covers the current trip only. A waiver does not guarantee entry, though: the national guidelines state that the Australian Government cannot guarantee entry into another country, so the destination's embassy is the place to confirm before relying on one.
Talk to someone now
Free advice for questions about a medicine, dose, or interaction.
Frequently asked questions
Because only a primary care practice approved by a state or territory health authority as a Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre can give the vaccine and issue the stamped certificate, and only medical practitioners and nurse practitioners can be accredited to give it. A travel-medicine clinic or an approved general practice is the usual place to go.
