Immunisation of children - social trends
Sunday, November 09, 2003 (23:46:38)

Posted by Sylvia

National Statistics

Over the past 50 years a key factor in the reduction of infectious diseases and the associated morbidity and mortality has been the development of childhood vaccination programmes.

The percentage of children in the United Kingdom immunised against tetanus, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, pertussis (whooping cough) and measles, mumps and rubella is shown in Table 7.22. Current government immunisation targets are for 95 per cent of children to be immunised against these diseases by the age of two.

Immunisation against whooping cough was introduced in the 1950s, and this led to a sharp decline in deaths and notifications. In 1970 a study suggested that encephalopathy and brain damage might be a rare complication of immunisation. By 1978, only 30 per cent of children under two years were immunised against whooping cough and large outbreaks followed in 1978 and 1982.

New evidence suggested that the association between immunisation and encephalopathy was not causative and vaccine coverage rates increased. By 2000/01, 94 per cent of children in the United Kingdom had been immunised against whooping cough by their second birthday.

Measles immunisation was introduced in 1968 and, although immunisation was slow to gain general acceptance, notifications of measles outbreaks in the United Kingdom fell in the early 1980s. In 1988, the measles/mumps/ rubella (MMR) vaccine was introduced.

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