2018 was another good vaccination year

2018 became another good year for the Danish childhood vaccination programme.

“Trust has been restored in the programme. More people are having their children vaccinated and the coverage of several of the programme vaccines has risen. The programme and vaccines in general have once again become well-accepted”.

The above quote is from the Annual report of the programme published today. According to the report, the coverage of all vaccinations in the Danish childhood vaccination programme increased in 2018 or remained at par with the levels observed in 2017.

At the top of the list, we find the DiTeKiPol/Hib vaccine which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and Hib infection, and which is given to children for the first time at three months of age. Here, the coverage for children born in 2017 reached 97%.

Vaccines is the best prevention method available

“Vaccines are the best method out there for prevention of infectious diseases, for individual people and for society as a whole. In order to ensure a high level of protection for the entire population, it is necessary that as many as possible receive vaccination as part of the childhood vaccination programme”, notes Staff Specialist Peter Henrik Andersen from Statens Serum Institut, and he adds: 
“A sufficiently high vaccination coverage will not only protect the individual child. We also protect the children whose immune system is so weakened that they cannot withstand vaccination. Furthermore, we protect children who are currently too young to be vaccinated”. 

Peter Henrik Andersen is particularly encouraged by the fact that 2018 saw a strong increase in HPV vaccination among girls who turned 12 years old. In this group, coverage rose by 14% and 16% for the first and second HPV vaccine, respectively.

“It is very encouraging that we are slowly returning to the HPV vaccination coverage that we had before the crisis of trust we experienced in 2015. More and more 12- and 13-year-old girls are becoming vaccinated, thereby gaining protection against cervical cancer. And at the same time, it is evident that 2018 saw 20% more vaccinations of girls aged 13-17 years than 2017”, explains Peter Henrik Andersen.

“A sufficiently high vaccination coverage will not only protect the individual child. We also protect the children whose immune system is so weakened that they cannot withstand vaccination. Furthermore, we protect children who are currently too young to be vaccinated”.
Peter Henrik Andersen, Staff Specialist, SSI.

New vaccination initiatives

In 2018, the Danish government earmarked means for various new initiatives in the vaccination field that will come into effect in the next four years. The objective is that even more people may be vaccinated at the recommended time, that novel and even more effective vaccines are given and that everyone who may benefit from this may be offered vaccination.

One of the new initiatives is that health visitors will be trained to serve as vaccination ambassadors and that boys will also be offered HPV vaccination as from mid-2019. Additionally, the SSI is developing a new reminder scheme that will remind parents about vaccinations before the recommended vaccination time, and ongoing follow-up will be in place to establish if vaccinations are given. The scheme will be operational after the summer holidays.

Furthermore, a permanent and free MMR vaccination offer for adults was introduced in April 2018. The offer primarily targets people born after 1974 as they are more vulnerable to the disease than the older generations who typically became infected in childhood. The new offer has become a considerable success. In 2018, a total of 3,614 adults received measles vaccination, whereas in the first approx. 2½ months of 2019 nearly 6,500 adults have already accepted the free MMR vaccination offer. That is almost twice as many as in 2018, and - overall - more than 10,000 have currently accepted the free vaccination offer.

Fewer reported side-effects

Measured by the number of reported side-effects due to vaccinations, 2018 was also a good year. The Danish Medicines Agency received 661 reports of side effects to vaccines in the childhood vaccination programme. That corresponds to a 13% decline compared with 2017, when the recorded number also declined compared with 2016.

Here, as for other aspects, the SSI also appreciates the development for HPV vaccination, where the Danish Medicines Agency received 130 notifications of possible side effects in 2018.
“The figure remains stable compared with 2017, when 134 notifications were made, and it is clearly lower than in 2015 and 2016 when 821 and 308 notifications were made. Furthermore, the trend should be seen in the light of the fact that 67,598 people received HPV vaccination in 2018”, notes Peter Henrik Andersen.

The annual report released

The annual report for the childhood vaccination programme was prepared jointly by the Danish Health Authority, Statens Serum Institut and the Danish Medicines Authority. Among others, the report contains information about the vaccination programme, its coverage and the effects of the vaccines. Furthermore, the report presents facts about reported side effects and local initiatives to have even more people receive the vaccines offered under the programme. 

The annual report is for anyone who wants to learn more about the Danish childhood vaccination programme. This applies to parents as well as the media, decision makers and other authorities.

For more information, please see The Childhood Vaccination Programme - Annual Report 2018