Protecting Scotland’s young people from vaccine preventable diseases

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is encouraging young people to take up the offer of routine vaccines at secondary school, as reports published earlier this week show that uptake rates are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

In Scotland, three routine vaccines are offered in secondary schools – HPV, MenACWY and DTP. They provide young people, their families, and their communities with long-term protection against these serious diseases. If fewer young people don’t get their vaccinations, the risks to themselves and those around them are likely to increase.

All S1 pupils are offered vaccination against Human papillomavirus (HPV), a very common virus that can cause certain cancers including cervical cancer, head and neck cancers, and anogenital cancers (for example, cancers of the anus, penis, vagina and vulva).

The HPV vaccination programme started in Scotland in 2008, and a recent study shows that no cervical cancer cases have been detected in fully vaccinated women following HPV immunisation at age 12-13. Despite this, the report shows that vaccination rates in S1 pupils have declined gradually over 10 years.

Pupils in S3 are offered the MenACWY vaccine to help protect them from meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning), as well as the DTP vaccine to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, and polio. Both vaccines complete the childhood vaccination course and provide longer-term immunity.

Data shows that boys are less likely to receive all three vaccines than girls. There are also differences in uptake by deprivation and ethnicity.

PHS’s national campaign, Chat. Sign. Protect., is helping to raise awareness and uptake of secondary school vaccines. It provides useful information such as videos answering some of the most common questions about secondary school vaccinations, information in other formats and languages, and advice for young people who are not in mainstream school.

Nick Phin, Director of Clinical and Protecting Health at PHS, strongly urges parents to provide consent for their child to be vaccinated:

“Vaccination is the best way of protecting children from certain serious and, in some cases, life-threatening diseases. Scotland has a strong track record in immunisation but we still have work to do.

“These figures will help redouble our efforts to bring the benefits of vaccinations to Scots in all our communities, reducing the risks and effects of vaccine preventable diseases. Last week, we published Scotland’s 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan which sets out how we will work with partners across Scotland to achieve this aim.”