Three new vaccines for childhood immunisation
Three new vaccines are to be included in the childhood immunisation programme used across Britain from September.
Government health departments in England, Scotland and Wales announced
the changes to the programme earlier this week following advice from
the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. Instead of the live
oral polio vaccine, an inactivated polio vaccine will be given (incorporated
into the three new combined vaccines to be given to infants, pre-school
children and teenagers). The switch is being made because the risk of
polio infection in Britain is now low and the inactivated version of
the vaccine does not carry any risk of vaccine-associated paralytic polio,
which occurs very rarely with the oral vaccine.
The second major change to the immunisation programme is that acellular
pertussis vaccine will replace whole cell pertussis vaccine (within the
combined vaccines given to infants and pre-school children). The JCVI
says that the new acellular vaccine provides the same level of protection
against whooping cough as the whole cell version but tends to cause fewer
adverse reactions.
Three new vaccines will be supplied. For primary immunisations Pediacel,
a single vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus
influenzae type b, will replace the current regimen of an injection plus
oral polio drops. The pre-school booster — Repevax — will
contain low dose diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis and inactivated
polio. The vaccine for teenagers — Revaxis — will contain
low dose diphtheria, tetanus and inactivated polio vaccine.
The new vaccines, which are manufactured by Aventis Pasteur MSD, do not
contain thiomersal and should be stored between 2C and 8C and protected
from light.
Supplies of the new vaccines will be sent out from late September. Immunisation
courses started with the previous vaccines should be completed with the
new vaccines.
A spokesman for Aventis Pasteur confirmed that all three vaccines have
been used in other health care settings. Revaxis has been used widely
throughout Europe since 1999. Repevax has also been used in Europe, mainly
in Germany, where it was launched two years ago. A vaccine closely related
to Pediacel (containing the same components but not formulated as a ready-to-use
vaccine) has been used in Canada since 1997. UK trials have also been
conducted for Pediacel and Repevax.
Influenza and pneumococcal
immunisation This year’s influenza
immunisation policy for England remains unchanged, the Department
of Health has announced. Once again, the uptake target is 70 per
cent for people aged 65 years and over. A national publicity campaign
will be launched in October. Pneumococcal
immunisation is now provided
for all people aged 75 years and over and younger people in certain
risk groups. Funding for the influenza and pneumococcal programmes
will be paid to primary care trusts by 31 August.
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