During pandemics, health authorities may be uncertain about the spread and severity of the disease and the effectiveness and safety of available interventions. This was the case during the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic of 2009–2010, and governments were forced to make decisions despite these uncertainties. While many countries chose to implement wide scale vaccination programmes, few accomplished their vaccination goals. Many research studies aiming to explore barriers and facilitators to vaccine uptake have been conducted in the aftermath of the pandemic, including several qualitative studies.
Open access. The BCG vaccine is administered to protect against tuberculosis, but studies suggest there may also be non-specific beneficial effects upon the infant immune system, reducing early non-targeted infections and atopic diseases. The present randomised trial tested the hypothesis that BCG vaccination at birth would reduce early childhood hospitalisation in Denmark, a high-income setting.
This template letter can be used by provider organisations when communicating to parents of babies who have missed BCG immunisation. It may be adapted for local needs, although PHE suggest the main body of the text remains unchanged.
Learning from the 2015/16 flu campaign highlighted that monitoring of ongoing performance was difficult due to the manual collation of vaccination forms and a separate audit process that had been introduced to capture staff who received their vacciantion at their GP.
To improve this for the 2016/17 flu campaign the flu steering committee, chaired by the deputy chief nurse, agreed to look at an alternative method of capturing and reporting flu vaccinations that took place and reduce the burden of administrative work. After conversations with ICT we decided to develop an app to capture the flu vaccination information.
In our latest series of reward initiatives for good practice, flu fighter HQ is now searching for the team that makes the best use of peer vaccination.
As part of the reward scheme, we want to hear from flu teams who can demonstate how they have found, trained and used peer vaccinators so the trust are able to vaccinate as many staff as possible.
Background
Gypsies, Travellers and Roma (referred to as Travellers) are less likely to access health services, including immunisation. To improve immunisation rates, we need to understand what helps and hinders individuals in these communities in taking up immunisations.
Aims
(1) Investigate the barriers to and facilitators of acceptability and uptake of immunisations among six Traveller communities across four UK cities; and (2) identify possible interventions to increase uptake of immunisations in these Traveller communities that could be tested in a subsequent feasibility study.
News from our partners Public Health England
Public Health England (PHE) in the West Midlands is calling for students to get the MenACWY vaccine as cases of meningococcal disease – that can lead to meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning) – are anticipated to spike in the winter months.
All teenagers aged 18 and 19 (born between 1 September 1996 and 31 August 1997) are eligible to receive the vaccine for free, regardless of whether they’re studying or pursuing other activities.
PHE figures show that cases of meningococcal disease peak each year during winter – December through to March.
JUST FOUR IN 10 PREGNANT WOMEN ACCEPTED the offer of flu vaccination during the 2014/15 winter season.
The low take up is despite figures showing that 36 pregnant women died from certain strains of flu in the UK and Ireland between 2009-12, accounting for one in 11 of all maternal deaths during this period. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens