Childhood vaccination rates see further drop

The percentage of under-twos in England receiving most routine vaccinations has fallen slightly for the third consecutive year.

Data from the NHS has shown that uptake of the first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, given at the age of one, has fallen to 91.9 percent coverage in 2015-16, below the national target of 95 percent.

It means the percentage receiving the first dose of MMR peaked in 2013-14 at 92.7 percent, before falling slightly in the years since. Meanwhile, only 88.2 percent of children had received both required doses by the age of five, which was a slight decrease from the 2014-15 figure after steady improvements in previous years.

Additionally, it was shown that 93.6 percent of children in England received their first course of the five-in-one vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and haemophilus influenzae type B, compared with 94.2 percent coverage in 2014-15 and 94.3 percent in 2013-14.

Professor Peter Openshaw, president of the British Society for Immunology, said: "There needs to be sufficient funding and skills to be able to both communicate the benefits of vaccination and to deliver vaccines efficiently and effectively to the people who need them."

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