This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Child vaccination
09/08/2004
The Childhood Immunisation Programme is to have changes
made to the vaccines used to protect children from some
serious infectious diseases.
This follows recommendations by the Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the independent
advisory committee for all UK Health Departments.
Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Dr Mac Armstrong,
announced today that new vaccines will replace existing
vaccines in order to provide more appropriate protection
against Polio for teenagers and Diphtheria, Tetanus,
Pertussis (whooping cough), Polio and Hib for younger
children.
There will be two key changes which will affect the
immunisation used for three different groups of
children:
- An inactivated polio vaccine
(IPV) will be given to teenagers, children and infants
instead of the live oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Due to the success of the global vaccination programme,
polio has been eliminated from much of the world. The risk
of polio infection in the UK is now very low and this means
that a switch can be made to IPV. This vaccine is as
effective as OPV and does not carry the risk of vaccine
associated paralytic polio (VAPP) which occurs very rarely
with OPV.
- An acellular pertussis vaccine
will be given as part of the primary immunisation
programme for infants at 2, 3 and 4 months and the
pre-school booster for those aged between 3 years and 4
months to 5 years of age to protect them from whooping
cough.
This single DTaP/IPV/Hib (diphtheria, tetanus, five
component acellular pertussis, inactivated polio and
haemophilius influenzae type b vaccine) will replace the
current regime of an injection plus oral polio drops.
JCVI had previously recommended that when new equally
effective non-thiomersal-containing vaccines could be
provided, they should be. All the new vaccines announced
today are thiomersal free.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Mac Armstrong said:
"The childhood immunisation programme has been very
successful in Scotland in providing vital protection for
children from serious infectious diseases.
"Today we have announced that new, improved vaccines
will be introduced to replace existing vaccines to provide
protection against serious, infectious diseases. These have
been tested and licensed for use in the UK and are in line
with advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation.
"We are now able to offer effective immunisation against
Polio which avoids the rare possibility of developing
vaccine acquired polio and, we can switch to the newly
available acellular pertussis vaccine meaning that children
will be less likely to suffer from minor reactions such as
swelling or redness, while at the same time using a vaccine
free from thiomersal - a mercury-based preservative.
"This is an important step forward bringing further
benefits to children. We are protecting them against the
same diseases as the vaccines supplied in the current
programme and children will be immunised at the same
stages. Where the vaccines are being given in a new
combination, all the component parts have been shown to
work effectively in these combinations.
"GPs will start using the new vaccines as soon as they
become available from September and patients will continue
to be called for appointments as part of the childhood
immunisation programme. It is important babies, infants and
children are immunised at certain stages of their
development and parents should continue with the routine
vaccination programme."
Information on these vaccines will be made available to
parents. Parents who have any concerns about their child's
health or any immunisation issue, should speak with their
GP or contact NHS Helpline on 0800 224488. Information on
immunisation is also available on
www.healthscotland.com/immunisation
The new vaccines are:
- For Infants - DTaP/IPV/Hib - Brand name Pediacel;
replacing DTwP and OPV
- For Pre-School - dTaP/IPV - Brand name Repevax;
replacing DTaP and OPV
- For Teenagers - Td/IPV - Brand name Revaxis;
replacing Td and OPV
D - denotes Diphtheria
T - denotes Tetanus
aP - denotes acellular pertussis (whooping cough)
Hib - is haemophilius influenzae (which can lead to
meningitis and septicaemia)
IPV - denotes inactivated polio (not a live strain)
OPV - denotes oral polio (drops)
The CMO has written to health professionals to advise
them of the changes.
Surveillance of cases of infectious diseases is
undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Infection and
Environmental Health and can be accessed at:
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh
The immunisation website will contain all the new
materials as well as translations into Arabic, Bengali,
Chinese, Gaelic, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, and
Turkish. Large print, audio and Braille versions are
available on request. A large selection of other
immunisation material and research will also be
included.