Seventy per cent of 12 – 13 year old girls complete vaccination programme against HPV virus to protect against cervical cancer

Seventy per cent of eligible 12 to 13-year-old girls were fully immunised against HPV – the virus that can lead to most cervical cancers - during 2008-09, a report from The NHS Information Centre shows today.

While 70 per cent of girls in school year eight received all three doses of the vaccine, just over 87 per cent in total received one dose, according to NHS Immunisations Statistics, England, 2008-09.

The statistics also show that in 2008-09,

  • Uptake of the Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine for children reaching their second birthday remained at around 85 per cent for the third year running. This is still lower than in the mid 1990s when just over 90 percent of children received the MMR vaccine, but higher than the uptake low of 80 per cent in 2003-04.
  • 78 per cent of children received first and second doses of the MMR vaccine between the ages of three and five. This is a four percentage point increase on the previous year. This is the highest level recorded since the COVER programme began evaluating the second dose of MMR at five years of age in 1998.
  • Uptake of vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and meningitis C (MenC) for children reaching their second birthday was between 92 per cent and 94 per cent, a level that has remained broadly stable since 2004-05.
  • There were 239,241 BCG vaccinations in 2008-09, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year (217,294) given to those in specified at risk categories. Although babies under the age of one, account for the nearly two thirds of the BCG vaccinations, most of this increase came from vaccination of those aged over one which increased by nearly 22 per cent from 73,978 in 2007-08 to 90,213 in 2008-09.
  • The proportion of people aged 65 and over immunised against seasonal influenza was 74 per cent in 2008-09, maintaining the level of recent years and very close to attaining the World Health Organisation target of 75 per cent.

Tim Straughan, Chief Executive of the NHS Information Centre said: “Our statistics show that in the first school year of the HPV vaccine being offered, 70 per cent of eligible girls completed the full course of all three doses.

“Our report also shows uptake of the MMR vaccine has remained at roughly 85 per cent since 2006-07. This remains lower than in the mid 1990s when just over 90 percent of children received the MMR vaccine, but higher than the uptake low of 80 per cent in 2003-04.”

The full immunisation statistics can be found online at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/immstats2008-2009

Regional data is available.

There continues to be some difficulties in London with PCTs and their child health IT systems. This is the fourth year that these difficulties have resulted in unreliable data for a number of PCTs in the capital although many such data quality issues are now the result of upgrading systems in response to the previous issues.

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. This statistical bulletin summarises information on immunisation statistics on 4 key areas:
  • The Childhood Immunisation programme in England which is derived from the COVER (Cover of Vaccination Evaluated Rapidly) data collection undertaken by the Health Protection Agency (HPA)
  • Bacille Calmette Guérin (BCG) or tuberculosis vaccinations which are derived from The NHS Information Centre KC50 return
  • Immunisation against influenza in persons aged 65 and over which is collected by the HPA's Centre for Infections and provided by the Department of Health
  • The new immunisation against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) for girls aged 12-13 also sourced from Department of Health via HPA 3. The aim of the UK immunisation programme is to ensure that as many children as possible are immunised against diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae B, meningitis C, measles, mumps and rubella, pertussis, pneumococcal infections, polio, and tetanus.
  1. Current recommendations by the World Health Organisations (WHO) are that at least 95% of children receive three primary doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in the first year of life; that at least 95% receive a first dose of a mumps-containing vaccine (e.g. MMR) at age 12-18 months; and that at least 95% receive a measles vaccine by two years of age. Vaccination rates (collected using the COVER system) nationally tend to be around 90% for children for all vaccines, except MMR vaccine where uptake for 2008-09 is at 85%. Current levels of uptake of all vaccines (except MMR) are close to the WHO recommended level of 95%.
  2. “At Risk” Categories for BCG vaccinations are defined as those who are most likely to catch the disease, especially those living in areas with a high rate of tuberculosis, or whose grandparents were born in a tuberculosis high prevalence country.
  3. Some figures have been published for the first time this year and these have been labelled as “Experimental Statistics” which are new official statistics that are under going evaluation. A key part of the “Experimental Statistics” label is user engagement in the evaluation of those statistics, and the NHS IC invites readers to comment on this publication, which will help inform the next report. Comments may be sent to enquiries@ic.nhs.uk.
  4. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact: