Home

The importance of keeping up to date with teenagers immunisations

21/09/2011

This time last year, I was busy helping Will, my younger son get ready for university.  While he got together his computer cables and chargers, I rounded up bedlinen, towels and some spare crockery. I also put together a very basic first aid kit but it was only when one of my patients got meningitis that I thought to check whether Wills immunisations were up to date. To my shame, it turned out that he had only ever had one MMR, and we only just managed to get an appointment for his booster the day before he left.

As a doctor, I should, of course, have kept a far closer eye on which jabs he’d had, but like so many working mums it was one of the balls of the juggling act that got dropped. And from what I see in my surgery I’m fairly typical - many mums complain that the immunisation regime is so complicated that as soon as you have more than one child it’s nigh on impossible to keep track of who has had what, especially once the initial baby jabs have been done.

But now, more than ever, it’s really important to check that older kids have had all their jabs, as cases of measles are on the rise.  This year alone, up until the end of July, there have been 777 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales, compared to only 374 for the whole of 2010. Most of the cases have been in children and  young adults, and clustered in outbreaks in universities and schools. And it’s not only measles that poses a risk to youngsters – last year there were nearly 900 cases of meningitis, many of them also in young adults. 

The way that students live and socialise in close proximity to each other while they are studying away from home is an ideal place for bacteria and viruses to spread, and is one of the reasons that students are much more at risk. The other is because many have missed out on vaccinations.  The MMR protects against mumps and rubella as well as measles, but to be fully effective 2 doses are needed – and many 18 year olds have only had one. The Men C jab provides protection against meningitis caused by one common strain, but it was only introduced into the vaccine schedule in 1999. That meant older teenagers missed out on being given the jab along with their other baby jabs, and some missed out on the subsequent catch-up programme.

If you are one of the many who can’t find a written record of your childs vaccinations, don’t worry. Just call your local surgery, and they will be able to help from their computer records. And if there is any uncertainty about whether a vaccine has been given or not, just ask for them to be given a further dose – it won’t do any harm, and it could save their life.

Back to Blog List