94% of UK Kids Vaccinated Against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio & Hib

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 23 Dec 2004 - 13:00 PDT


The latest vaccine uptake data from the Health Protection Agency shows that over 94% of all children in the UK reaching 2 years of age are being protected against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) by vaccination.

MMR uptake has also risen over the latest quarter in four UK regions, as well as in Northern Ireland and Scotland, although the overall figure for the UK has fallen slightly, by 0.2%, from 81.5% (April to June 2004) to 81.3% (July to September 2004). These latest figures are for children reaching 24 months of age between July and September 2004.

Dr Natasha Crowcroft, who is responsible for the vaccine uptake programme at the Agency said, "The success of the national vaccination programme in protecting against a range of serious childhood diseases, such as diphtheria, whooping cough, and Hib, is also clearly demonstrated in these latest figures. The slight national drop in coverage of MMR vaccine uptake was predicted through our early surveillance of children at 16 months of age and this surveillance currently indicates that we may see coverage at 24 months rise slightly over the next few months. However, it remains very encouraging to see the continued increase in uptake of MMR in a number of areas of the UK , notably the East Midlands (up 0.8%), South East (up 0.6%), East of England (up 0.5%), North West (up 0.2%) Wales (up 0.2%) and Scotland (up 0.2%). London remains the most challenging region for getting good coverage and this is why the upcoming Capital Measles Campaign is so important for protecting children.

"It is important that parents of older children know that their child can receive the MMR vaccination at any age. Good times to think about this are at their pre-school and school-leaving boosters. Whichever vaccines they have already received, if they have missed out on MMR in the past it is always possible to catch up."

To see a copy of the latest COVER report, please go to: http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr

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