Vaccines
Vaccinations protect people from serious illness and complications of vaccine-preventable diseases that can lead to serious, or in some cases, fatal symptoms.
Vaccination is safe and effective. All vaccines under go long and careful review by scientists, doctors and the government to make sure that they are safe.
Despite this, there are still too many people who are not getting potentially life-saving vaccinations. This can be seen with the Men ACWY vaccine that is offered free to all 17 and 18 year olds and first time University entrants under 25. This age-group is deemed to be particularly at risk of catching the disease that this vaccine prevents - meningitis. The level of vaccine uptake was at just 33% last year.
The Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer in women. the HPV vaccine provides protection against the two high risk types that cause 70% of all cervical cancers (NHS Choices 2014). Find out more about the HPV Vaccination Programme at healthtalk.org, and hear young people talk about their experiences getting the vaccine.
For more Information on vaccinations and reducing the spread of infections visit E-Bug for Advice, hot topics, animations and videos on antibiotics, vaccinations and spread of infection.