Immunisation

Key messages for primary care practitioners

ALWAYS ask new migrants about their vaccine history.
Assume patients are unimmunised unless they can give a reliable history of vaccination.
Individuals who arrive in the UK part way through their immunisation schedule should be transferred onto the UK schedule and immunised as appropriate for their age.
If a course of immunisation has been started but not completed, continue from where it was interrupted - there is no need to repeat doses or restart the course.
The HPA Immunisation Algorithm provides advice on immunising individuals with uncertain or incomplete immunisation status.
In case of doubt contact your local PCT or HPU immunisation co-ordinator for further advice.

Immunisation schedules by country can be accessed via the WHO vaccine preventable diseases monitoring system: Immunizations by angiten, selection centre [external link]

Further information and advice on global immunisation schedules and estimated coverage levels are available from the WHO vaccine-preventable diseases monitoring system [external link]

Further advice on updating immunisations

Patient information (English and other languages)

Further advice on updating immunisations

Detailed information and guidance about immunisation is available from the Green Book [external link].

Catch up on immunsations for migrants [external link] training video from HPA migrant health event 12 November 2012

A video describing how to catch up immunisations for migrants.

If you are updating a patient's immunisations give as many vaccines as possible at each visit, just in case the patient does not return for subsequent appointments.

Consider asking any other family members who have accompanied the patient about their vaccination histories and update them during the same visit if possible.

Opportunistically ask about future travel plans to visit friends and relatives in their country of origin and arrange for provision of appropriate travel advice as necessary.

Further information is available from the HPA web pages on immunisation.

Patient Information (English and other languages)

Immunisation - Why our children must be protected [external link] (DVD) (Department of Health information). Available in English, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Polish, Punjabi, Somali and Urdu.

A guide to immunisations up to 13 months of age [external link] (Department of Health information leaflet). Available in English, Greek, Polish, Somali, Arabic, Bengali, Gujarati, Portuguese, Tamil, Cantonese, Italian, Punjabi, Turkish, Czech, Kurdish, Urdu, Farsi, Pashto, Spanish, Vietnamese, French.

Pre-school immunisations: a guide to vaccinations for 3- to 5-year-olds [external link] (Department of Health information leaflet). Available in English, Polish, Lithuanian.

TB, BCG vaccine and your baby [external link] (Department of Health information leaflet). Available in English, Arabic, Polish, Latvian, Punjabi, Bengali, Estonian, Lithuanian, Turkish, Chinese, Gujarati, Urdu and Portuguese.

MMR - the facts [external link] (Department of Health information leaflet). Available in English, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish, Urdu.

Seasonal flu: why you should have the vaccination [external link] (Department of Health campaign leaflet). Available in English, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu.

Flu vaccination for poultry workers [external link] (Department of Health information leaflet). Available in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Latvian, Polish, Portugese, Punjabi, Russian, Urdu.

Catching up immunisations for migrants
A video describing how to catch up immunisations for migrants.
Added/updated: 30 August 2012