RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Two centuries of immunisation in the UK (part 1)
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 115
OP 121
DO 10.1136/archdischild-2019-317314
VO 105
IS 2
A1 Sarah Lang
A1 Sarah Loving
A1 Noel Denis McCarthy
A1 Mary Elizabeth Ramsay
A1 David Salisbury
A1 Andrew J Pollard
YR 2020
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/105/2/115.abstract
AB The impact of immunisation is best understood through a historical lens, since so many of the diseases which placed a burden on our population have been eliminated or controlled through immunisation. The United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), which celebrated its 70th birthday in 2018, is responsible for delivering the highly successful universal national immunisation programme. However, the first vaccines used in the UK were not part of a centrally coordinated programme until the 1960s. Resources that summarise the first 200 years of immunisation in the UK are not readily accessible. Here we provide a two part chronological insight into the history of the UK immunisation programme from primary sources. In Part I, we highlight the importance of wartime conditions, unprecedented vaccine development, and the polio outbreaks in the in driving developments in immunisation and discuss subsequent changes in the use of the original vaccines of the immunisation programme, namely, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio. In Part 2, we discuss the formation of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and its role, working with public health agencies and advising the UK Governments on vaccine policy, to bring a comprehensive programme to defend the health of the population against serious infectious diseases, highlighting the importance of programme organisation and leadership.