This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New childhood vaccines information
25/08/2004
Following the recent announcement from Dr Mac Armstrong,
Scotland's Chief Medical Officer, about changes to the
childhood immunisation programme, NHS Health Scotland is
today launching a new immunisation website for
Scotland.
The new website contains all publications relating to
the new vaccines and provides detailed information for
parents on all vaccines recommended in Scotland's
immunisation programme.
The site can be accessed at
www.healthscotland.com/immunisation.
There will be two key changes, effective from the end of
September that 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 and 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
efficacious non-thiomersal-containing vaccines could be
provided, they should be. All the new vaccines announced
today are thiomersal free.
To ensure parents, young people, and health
professionals, are familiar with the new vaccines Health
Scotland is distributing three new leaflets covering each
of the age groups affected and a factsheet for health
professionals. They will be available from GP surgeries and
pharmacists from Wednesday, September 1.
Dr James Inglis Consultant in Public Health Medicine at
Health Scotland said:
'We hope that this authoritative source of advice on
immunisation for parents, young people, and health
professionals in Scotland, will help answer many of the
questions about the new vaccines.
Any changes to the childhood vaccines causes
understandable concern and anxiety but now that much more
information about the new vaccines is being provided I am
confident the improved vaccines will be welcomed.'