What vaccinations are covered on NHS?
Vaccination is a major advance in the prevention of infectious disease.
The principle of vaccination is to protect you from a bug – by copying the natural interaction between the bug and the body’s immune (defence) system. The bug may be a bacterium, a virus (like COVID-19) or other type of organism (like Malaria). A vaccine reduces the risk of getting the bug – and if you get it, its complications and mortality.
There is another reason to be vaccinated. Some bugs (e.g. a virus called Human papillomavirus, HPV) can lead to cancer (e.g. cervical cancer in women). So if we stop children (boys and girls) getting HPV in the first place, less women in later life will get (and die from) cervical cancer.
So. What vaccines does the NHS offer?
This is a summary of the vaccines recommended by the NHS.
Vaccines offered to babies under 1 year old
Age Vaccines
8 weeks 6-in-1, Rotavirus, MenB
12 weeks 6-in-1 (2nd dose), Pneumococcal, Rotavirus (2nd dose)
16 weeks 6-in-1 (3rd dose), MenB (2nd dose)
Children aged 1 to 15
1 year Hib/MenC (1st dose), MMR (1st dose), Pneumococcal (2nd dose), MenB (3rd dose)
2 to 10 years Flu (every year)
3 yrs & 4 mths MMR (2nd dose), 4-in-1 pre-school booster
12 to 13 years Human papillomavirus (HPV)
14 years 3-in-1 teenage booster, MenACWY
Adults
65 years Pneumococcal
65 years Flu (& yearly)
70 years Shingles
Pregnant women
In flu season Flu
>16 wks Whooping cough (pertussis)
Benefits vs risks of vaccination
All medications and vaccines have potential risks. But that must be weighed up against the benefits of those drugs to prevent illness. Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions in modern history. It reduces disease spread, and significantly reduces complications and deaths from preventable diseases.
Summary
We have described what vaccinations are covered on NHS. We hope it has been helpful.
Other resource
This is a good UNICEF video about vaccination for parents.
