Vaccination programmes

Fig. 16.1 Reported incidence of paralytic poliomyelitis in England and Wales during the 1950s and 1960s. After introduction of vaccination programmes the incidence of disease dropped from an endemic incidence of ca. 5000 cases per year to fewer than 10.

An effective vaccination programme is therefore one that can maintain the proportion of individuals who are immune to a given infectious disease above the critical level. Sueh a programme will not prevent isolated cases of infection but will prevent these fiom beeoming epidemie. 

Vaccines to be included within a national immunization and vaccination programme are chosen to reflect the infection risks within that country. Additional immunization, appropriate for persons travelling abroad, is intended not only to protect the at-risk individual, but also to prevent importing the disease into an unprotected home community. 

Immunization against these three, unrelated diseases, is considered together since the vaccines are all non-living and are often co-administered as a triple vaccine as part of the juvenile vaccination programme. 

A wise precaution is to seek professional medical advice and institute a vaccination programme to protect staff against as wide a range of identified risks as possible. 

Q78 For which of the following infections is prophylaxis undertaken by means of a vaccination programme ... 

The result of vaccination programmes have been very impressive. The treatment of certain infectious diseases have been drastically reduced, with their virtual elimination from some countries where they formerly caused considerable disability and many deaths. Vaccination has also opened up the possibility of completely eradicating some diseases from the face of the earth e.g. small pox and polio. 

The safety and efficacy of Hib vaccines have clearly been demonstrated in developed countries and their introduction into the national vaccination programme of developing countries in the future can markedly reduce the incidence of Hib-related disease worldwide. 

According to the WHO report of 1995, hepatitis B vaccination should be included in vaccination programmes for infants and juveniles - this has already been introduced in numerous countries... 

Health Council of the Netherlands. Adverse reactions to vaccines used in the national vaccination programme in 1989. Report, Gezondheidsraad, The Hague, 1999. 

Vaccination programmes have been very effective in the control of some viral diseases. Protection against smallpox was first demonstrated in 1796 by Jenner by inoculation with cowpox. Smallpox was later successfully eradicated. Poliovirus is also being eliminated thanks to a controlled intensive worldwide vaccination programme initiated by the World Health Organization. Such preventative methods are the most effective and economic way of controlling viral infections. 

The timing of the various components of the juvenile vaccination programme is subject to continual review. In the 1960s, the primary course of DTP vaccination consisted of three doses given at 3, 6 and 12 months of age, together with OPV. This separation gave adequate time for the levels of induced... 

A hepatitis B vaccination programme in Austria, however, has proved successful, and Germany and the Netherlands report positive experiences, including among those at high risk of intravenous drug use. 

Beutels P, Edmunds WJ, Antonanzas F, et al. Economic evaluation of vaccination programmes A consensus statement focusing on viral hepatitis. Pharmacoeconomics 2002 20 1-7. 

Some developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Nordic countries with a very low prevalence of HBV do not apply universal vaccination programme to infants but choose to provide hepatitis B vaccines only to well-defined risk groups. 

Some of the most suggestive evidence comes from studies of the possible effects of the vaccination programme used to protect the Armed Forces against the threat from biological weapons, although this may partly reflect the fact that quantifying exposure to vaccines, although difficult, is not impossible, unlike some of the other postulated hazards. 

Despite vaccination programmes in many parts of the world, tuberculosis remains the largest single cause of death by infectious disease, causing three million deaths... 

While the prohlem of prices needs to he tackled for all essential and usefiil drug items, there are two class of products for which a special effort is needed. The one comprises new essential medicines as dehned as - important new medicines which represent a substantial advance in the treatment of major diseases yet which are still under patent and therefore expensive. The other class comprises vaccines, especially those used in national vaccination programmes. 

Despite the overall similarity of all the members of the picornavirus group, each of the genera possesses unique characteristics. One of the most significant features of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is its considerable antigenic variation, which presents important problems in vaccination programmes. A detailed analysis of the RHA and proteins of the virus has been undertaken in an attempt to gain an understanding of... 

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