Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 5 Apr 2000

Vol. 517 No. 4

Written Answers. - Vaccination Programme.

Jim O'Keeffe

Question:

91 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health and Children the situation in relation to the immunisation of babies; the percentage of babies being reached in the immunisation campaign; the obstacles to total coverage; and the steps, if any, proposed to achieve this objective. [9654/00]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

The primary childhood immunisation programme provides for the immunisation of children under the age of two years against a number of serious infectious diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Hib disease, measles mumps and rubella. The present arrangements were introduced in 1995 and involve general practitioners entering into a contract with their local health board for the delivery of the programme. Parents may have their children immunised free of charge by the doctor of their choice. The operation of the programme is a matter in the first instance for the individual health boards.

Information provided by the health boards indicates that the immunisation uptake rates for children at two years of age, by health board, at 31 December 1999 are as follows:

Health Board	DTP/DT	MMR
Eastern	84%	74%
Midland	82%	70%
Mid-Western	78%	72%
North-Eastern	95%	79%
North-Western	90%	75%
South-Eastern	88%	86%
Southern	86%	73%
Western	92%	83%

The principal factors identified by the health boards as militating against a higher uptake rate are the lack of awareness among some parents as to the potential dangers of infectious diseases and some parental concern about the safety of vaccines.

In view of the generally unsatisfactory primary immunisation uptake, my Department has asked the office for health gain, which was established by the chief executive officers of the health boards to undertake health promotion activities, to consider the most appropriate means of heightening public awareness about the importance of childhood immunisation. The office will be developing a new campaign in this regard in the coming months.

With regard to parental concerns about vaccine safety, I would like to stress that the vaccines used in the primary childhood immunisation programme are safe and effective. They are subject to rigorous testing before being licensed for use and there is ongoing monitoring after licensing. In particular, my Department has reviewed the available evidence concerning the MMR vaccine and is satisfied that this vaccine is very safe and effective. There is no evidence to support any link between the MMR vaccine and the subsequent development either of chronic inflammatory bowel disease or of autism and recently published studies in the UK and Europe have further confirmed this. Neither is there evidence that giving each of the component vaccines separately has any greater benefit than the combined vaccine.

In addition to considering public information measures, my Department has recently written to all of the health boards, requesting them to make every effort to achieve the national targets in this programme this year, and to make particular efforts in relation to MMR. Among the issues which boards have been asked to address are the need to undertake an analysis of the reasons for the unsatisfactory level of uptake, to ensure that immunisation databases are regularly validated, to address low uptake in the traveller population and to follow up unimmunised children. Boards have been asked to make every effort to devise strategies tailored to local needs, employing innovative approaches if considered necessary, in order to achieve significant improvements in uptake.