Vaccination

UK needs robust vaccine development sector to prepare for next pandemic, says House of Lords committee

A letter from the chair of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has called on the government to create a “peacetimes vaccines taskforce”.…

Community pharmacies have administered more than 8,000 RSV vaccines in east of England

Exclusive: NHS England has said that 8,187 respiratory syncytial virus vaccinations have been delivered between October and November 2024 across 37 community pharmacies in Essex and Suffolk.…

Community pharmacies administered more than half of all COVID-19 vaccines to people from ethnic minorities, data show

According to the Company Chemists’ Association, data from the spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme show that more vaccinations should be commissioned from pharmacies to increase vaccine uptake, particularly in hard-to-reach communities.…

NHS England seeks views on centralising flu vaccine procurement

NHS England says it wants to hear evidence of the benefits and challenges of a centralised procurement model in order to improve the effectiveness of the delivery of the flu vaccination programme.…

MMR vaccination coverage in England has declined for fifth consecutive year

NHS Digital data show that 83.9% of children in England had completed the two-dose course by their fifth birthday, down from 86.8% in 2019/2020.…

UK government announces mpox vaccination programme

The government has ordered 150,000 additional doses of mpox vaccine in preparation for any clade I cases that may enter the UK.…

Mpox: how is the UK preparing for the latest variant?

With the first cases of a new mpox strain emerging in Europe and Asia in August 2024, the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern” for the second time in two years. So what is the ‘clade I’ mpox virus and what risk does it po…

More than 10,000 whooping cough cases reported in first six months of 2024

Case numbers of whooping cough in 2024 so far have already exceeded the total number of cases reported in 2012, the last major outbreak of the disease.…

NHS to commission 50 pharmacies to offer RSV vaccinations from September 2024

NHS England will commission 25 pharmacy contractors in NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) and a further 25 in NHS North East Essex ICB to provide the RSV community pharmacy pathfinder service.…

Test your knowledge of infectious diseases

Assess your knowledge of infectious disease topics, from flu to antimicrobial resistance, in this CPD and learning quiz.…