These changes to the national immunisation programme are being made during 2013-14 to reflect the planned and phased implementation of a series of recommendations by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to improve the overall level of protection against preventable diseases. The changes include the following:
• The rotavirus vaccination programme will start on 1 July 2013 when children under 4 months will be routinely vaccinated. The vaccine will be administered as a droplet into babies’ mouths during their 2- and 3-month vaccination appointments.
• Children aged 2 years will be offered a nasal flu vaccine from September 2013 as part of a number of pilot programmes to vaccinate primary and pre-school aged children against seasonal flu. The pilot programmes will ensure the NHS is appropriately geared up to roll out the programme in full to all pre-school and primary school children in 2014.
• There will be a shingles vaccination programme introduced for people aged 70, with a catch-up programme for those aged up to, and including, 79 years, from September 2013.
• The current schedule for protecting people against meningitis C will be updated: a new teenage booster jab given at around 14 years (to start in the 2013/14 academic year) will replace the vaccine dose that is currently given at 4 months of age – as evidence shows the routine four-month dose is no longer required.
There will be separate communications about the changes in England in relation to MenC, shingles and childhood flu prior to their implementation. Further detail about the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine is contained in this letter.