Drop in child vaccinations as WHO targets continue to be missed

Drop in child vaccinations as WHO targets continue to be missed

NHS Digital’s Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics reveals a decrease in coverage ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 percentage points between 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Coverage for the first dose of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine among children aged 24 months dropped from 91.2% in 2017-18 to 90.3% in 2018-19. The World Health Organisation (WHO) target is 95%.

This is the fifth consecutive year that MMR coverage in England has decreased, following a peak in 2013-14. There has been a drop of 2.3 percentage points over the last five years.

Regional data shows a fall in coverage in eight of the nine English regions in 2018-19 compared to the previous year. It remained unchanged for the North East, which had the highest level of coverage in both years at 94.5%. 

London had the lowest level of coverage in 2018-19 at 83.0% (down from 85.1% in 2017-18).

The report also includes coverage data for the pneumococcal disease (PCV), rotavirus, meningococcal group B (MenB), Hib booster and meningococcal group C vaccine (Hib/MenC) and children’s flu vaccines.

Event Diary

This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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