Mission: To make health a top priority for everyone in Northern Ireland.

Aim:
To provide clear information and advice on childhood diseases and explain how vaccinations can protect children from these serious and sometimes fatal illnesses.

Objectives:

• To increase overall awareness of the seriousness of childhood diseases.
• To provide information and increase knowledge of how immunisations protect children from childhood diseases.
• To increase knowledge of the ages at which immunisations or booster vaccinations are given.
• To help in answering parents' questions about childhood immunisation in general.
• To motivate parents to get their children immunised.

Background:
The HPA, in conjunction with the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), has recently developed a new range of public information materials as well as detailed professional information. This was done during 2004 to support the implementation of recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI recommendations led to three principle changes:

• DTaP/IPV/Hib is now being supplied for primary immunisation. It replaced DTwP-Hib and OPV vaccines previously given;
• dTaP/IPV or DTaP/IPV is now being supplied for preschool boosting replacing the DTaP and OPV vaccines previously given;
• Td/IPV is now given for teenage boosting replacing the Td and OPV vaccines.

This most recent process follows on from an earlier review of all childhood immunisation materials which saw all the publications revised and then launched in April 2002 and then being reprinted in August 2003 to complement the MMR materials that had been produced earlier (March 2001).

HPA’s revisions to these materials at that time included updating the booklet for parents, Protect your child - a guide for parents which focused on vaccinations given to young children aged two, three and four months and pre-school booster vaccinations given to children aged four to five years.

At the same time HPA also replaced the leaflet for 10-18 year olds with two separate resources, BCG and tuberculosis and Young people and immunisation. The former provided information on the BCG vaccine usually given to 10-14 year olds at school while the second resource dealt with tetanus, diphtheria and polio boosters usually given in school to young people aged 14-18 years.

All the leaflets for the public were translated into Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Irish and Urdu and printed and distributed as required.

A poster promoting childhood immunisation was also produced and the Guidance notes for professionals was updated. Stickers were produced for health professionals to give to young children receiving immunisations.

The latest campaign:
Five new leaflets for the public were produced by the HPA during 2004 covering all the childhood immunisations given between birth and leaving school. Dependent on the target area group, the leaflets are currently available from either health visitors, practice nurses/treatment room nurses, GPs, or through school health services as well as through the Central Health Promotion Resource Service in the local Health & Social Services Boards.

These current leaflets were also translated into six languages: Arabic, Chinese (complex character), Hindi, Irish, Portuguese and Urdu and were distributed as necessary.

The guidance notes for health professionals were also updated to include a new flickover leaflet with information about the new vaccines to be given in the childhood immunisation programmes along with a detailed factsheet about the new vaccines. The relevant chapters of The Green Book were updated and produced as a supplement entitled Immunisations against infectious diseases.

A poster promoting childhood immunisation was also produced and special stickers were revised and produced for health professionals to give to young children receiving immunisations to make the experience less stressful.

The five new leaflets produced are:

• Immunisation for babies in the first year of life;
• The facts about the MMR vaccine for babies aged 15 months;
• Immunisation for preschool children three to five years old;
• BCG immunisations for ages 14 to 14;
• Teenage immunisations for ages 14 to 18.

Evaluation:
The childhood immunisation programme in Northern Ireland has been successful over the years and the uptake rates for immunisations remain among the highest in the United Kingdom.

Vaccination coverage statistics are prepared each quarter from the child health system in each of the Board areas by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (Northern Ireland).

Vaccination coverage for the completed primary vaccination programme (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, Hib, MenC, and MMR vaccines) is assessed when the child is 12 and 24 months of age and vaccine coverage is also measured again at the child's fifth birthday.