The uptake of adolescent vaccinations through the School Immunisation Program in specialist schools in Victoria, Australia

Adolescent immunisation in young people with disabilities in Australia

“…Although small, it is an important and often overlooked group with respect to public health interventions. Our study found that 63% of participating students from specialist schools received the dTPa vaccine (compared with 89% in mainstream schools) and only 41% completed the full three doses of HPV vaccine required in 2017 (compared with 76% of males and 80% of females in mainstream schools). These are the first data in Victoria for adolescent vaccination coverage for students in non‐mainstream settings.…”

“…The two Victorian studies indicate that young people with disabilities in Australia are missing their adolescent vaccinations . While the second study provides broad reasons for missed immunisations, citing absence from school, lack of consent and student anxiety as the major issues, what is needed now is in‐depth exploration of the barriers to immunisation in this population. This will enable the development of effective interventions.…”

“…In Australia, almost 290 000 (7%) of children under the age of 14 years have a disability, broadly defined as a limitation or restriction of core activity lasting more than 6 months . There are only two Australian studies on immunisation uptake in adolescents with disabilities, both from Victoria . One is a small audit of HPV vaccination status of 72 adolescents with a variety of developmental disabilities recruited through a tertiary centre .…”

“…The second published study, which is from our research group, explores both dTPa and HPV immunisation uptake through the school‐based immunisation program across 28 non‐mainstream schools catering for students with physical and/or intellectual disability in Victoria . Just over 43 000 (15%) of the students with disabilities in Australia attend the 472 non‐mainstream schools that cater for the education and wellbeing needs of students with significant intellectual, physical, behavioural or emotional learning needs.…”

Vaccine Coverage among Children with and without Intellectual Disabilities in the UK: Cross Sectional Study

“…A present it is not known whether, in the UK, children with intellectual disabilities constitute one such group. Only two small scale studies have addressed this issue in the UK [11, 12], although some evidence of lower coverage among children with intellectual disability from population based studies is available from Taiwan [13, 14] and Australia [15]. Tuffrey and Finlay [12] report lower vaccination rates for pertussis, measles and rubella for children with intellectual or physical disabilities attending special schools in one health district in England.…”