Since the 1940s mass vaccination programmes have formed important elements in the governmental provision of healthcare services to children. Collectively, they have reduced the incidence and severity of numerous childhood diseases. Yet, they have also been subject to moments of social anxiety and panic over safety issues, necessity and the reach of the ‘nanny state’. These issues remain as ever present today as they did in the 1940s. They speak to the wider historical development of vaccinations, their introduction in Britain and how the NHS became the central instrument for providing childhood vaccinations free of charge to the public. While mass vaccination pre-dated the NHS, the launch of the NHS coincided with the considerable increase in the types of diseases for which vaccination programmes were developed and introduced in Britain. Vaccinations against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tuberculosis and polio were all provided to children by 1956 and as the century progressed so too did the array of diseases for which vaccines were developed and introduced in Britain.
Routine vaccination of children has occupied an important place in childhood interactions with the NHS and it was the National Health Service Act itself that secured the place of vaccination within state-funded child health services. Before this, smallpox was the major disease subject to routine vaccination. Diphtheria vaccination in particular had suffered from apparent political indifference throughout the 1930s, which slowed its introduction. Local authorities were responsible for funding such vaccination programmes before the introduction of the NHS and as many were already burdened with operating infant welfare clinics and dispensaries, they were reluctant to accrue more expense and commitment. The outbreak of the Second World War provided the necessary impetus to introduce diphtheria vaccination with central government allocating funds to local authorities to meet the costs of introducing the programme. By the end of 1942, a third of all children under 15 years of age in England and Wales, and a half of all in Scotland had been protected against diphtheria. While this was a major step in widening the availability of vaccination against certain childhood diseases, it was not until the passing of the National Health Service Acts of 1946-8, which established the NHS, that a major sea change in vaccination provision was secured. The Act strengthened the policy for subsequent introductions of childhood vaccinations and allowed the National Health Service to take responsibility for co-ordinating both current and future vaccination programmes.
Within two years of its establishment the NHS was providing routine vaccination against both pertussis (whooping cough) and tuberculosis in addition to smallpox and diphtheria. The BCG vaccine against tuberculosis was first offered to nurses in 1949, a particularly susceptible occupational group. By 1950 the Medical Research Council began a vaccination trial on 56,000 school children but the widespread vaccination of children began long before it reported its results in 1956. Indeed, by the end of 1950 BCG vaccination programmes were operating in earnest throughout Scotland and had spread nationwide by early 1953. These vaccination programmes can be viewed as an important aspect of postwar welfare provision and as part of the Labour government’s wider attempt to introduce greater equality in health provision in the years after the Second World War.
In the years following the launch of the National Health Service, numerous other vaccination programmes were introduced, mainly aimed at protecting childhood populations. During the early 1950s there were a number of severe polio epidemics with as many as 8000 annual notifications of paralytic poliomyelitis in Britain. Routine vaccination against polio with inactivated virus began in 1956 and was later replaced in 1962 by the live attenuated oral polio vaccination, memorably delivered on a sugar cube. Following the introduction of the vaccination, cases of polio fell dramatically with the last indigenous outbreak occurring in the late 1970s and the last case of natural polio infection acquired in Britain in 1984.
Vaccines for other childhood diseases followed with vaccination against measles introduced in 1968. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine, notifications of measles varied between 160,000 and 800,000 cases a year with peaks biennially. From 1968 until the late 1980s coverage was disappointingly low and was insufficient to interrupt the spread of measles. Annual notifications only fell to between 50,000 and 100,000 and measles remained a major cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. Between 1970 and 1988, there continued to be an average of 13 acute measles deaths every year. The introduction of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in 1988 helped turn the tide, achieving coverage levels in excess of ninety per cent. Consequently, measles transmission was substantially reduced and notifications of measles fell to very low levels.
The introduction of the MMR also provided much needed protection from mumps and rubella. Prior to 1988 mumps commonly occurred in school-age children with eighty-five per cent of adults having evidence of previous mumps infection. It was the most common cause of viral meningitis and resulted in over 1200 hospital admissions each year in England and Wales. High uptake of the MMR vaccine ensured that incidence of the disease fell substantially. Catch-up programmes were introduced in the 1990s to prevent a major mumps outbreak amongst those children who were initially too old to receive the MMR upon its introduction in 1988, as unlike for measles and rubella, a single mumps vaccine had not previously been available. A vaccine for rubella had been available to pre-pubescent girls and non-immune women since 1970 to prevent the disease in pregnancy where it may result in foetal loss or congenital rubella syndrome. The introduction of the MMR provided universal immunisation against rubella and aimed to interrupt the circulation of the disease among young children and therefore provide protection to the adult female population by limiting exposure.
Since the 1990s, the childhood immunisation programme has continued to grow in scope, with both new vaccines introduced and existing vaccines combined with others to create such combined vaccines as the 4-in-1 and later the 5-in-1. In particular, the haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine to protect against the common presentation of meningitis and bacteraemia was introduced in 1992 and later offered as a combination vaccine with diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTwP/Hib) from 1996 and later as part of the 5-in-1 with diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio (DTaP/IPV/Hib) from 2004. Vaccines against other types of meningitis have also been introduced to provide long-term protection from these bacterial infections. Vaccines against strain C have been provided since 1999, from pneumococcal (PCV) since 2001 and from B and ACWY since 2015. The HPV vaccine has been made available under the NHS vaccination programme since 2008 to girls ages 12 and 13 to protect against cervical cancer in adulthood. Rotavirus and influenza vaccines for children have also been introduced to prevent the highly infectious stomach bug causing acute dehydration and the incidence of flu amongst the under fives.
The ever-increasing reach of the vaccination programme, made available to all through the National Health Service, has successfully reduced the incidence of the diseases covered by the programme. The programme continues to evolve with new vaccines added and vaccines that are considered no longer necessary removed. In particular, the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis is no longer offered on a universal basis but rather to at-risk groups, reflecting the changing epidemiology of tuberculosis in Britain. Over the lifetime of the National Health Service vaccination has remained an important element of both public health and service provision. It has combined health education with medical intervention to prevent the incidence of many serious childhood diseases with vaccination programmes accompanied by national publicity campaigns to encourage high uptake. In many ways the provision of vaccinations represents the most successful example of postwar preventative medicine aimed at encouraging the public to engage in healthy behaviours – in this case bringing both themselves and their children for vaccination – to maintain the healthiness of both the individual and the family.
JH
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So how can I find out when I had my injections as a child of the 50s
I would like to know that myself it is incredibly sinister
Well you are still alive, I very nearly died in 1954 of these diseases before I was vaccinated. Count yourself lucky. It’s not sinister, it’s a miracle.
If those records exist anywhere, they will be with your GP. As with all medical advice, you should consult your doctor in the first instance.
If you were born in the 1950s, then your parents were most likely offered vaccinations against diptheria, tetanus, smallpox and polio before you went to school, and then boosters once you were in school. As a teenager, you were probably offered BCG, the anti-tuberculosis vaccine. Depending on how late in the 1950s you were born, you might have had access to measles vaccine and – if you were a girl – rubella when you were a teenager.
If you travelled as a child, you might have been offered other vaccines, such as against yellow fever.
Whether your parents or you actually got those vaccines though, only your medical records will be able to say.
My vaccination records don’t show that I had any in the 1950s. I have logged into my record on my GP practice’s website. From reading the above, I probably didn’t have those childhood vaccinations.
I clearly remember going with my Dad into Birmingham City Centre to have a Polio vaccination. After giving my details to the lady at the corridor window my Dad was asked for his details. He was very clear that he hadn’t come for vaccination. The generous lady informed Dad that it was fine and he was entitled to have the vaccination as well. He very firmly declined.
Imagine his face when we got to the front of the queue when they gave me the sugar lump!
Haha that’s a great memory, thank you for sharing! Would you be happy if we tweeted this and added it to our memory section on the website, peopleshistorynhs.org/sharestory ? I’d love to share it further!
My mother took me for my vaccinations in greencres Oldham it was the first new clinic I had my picture taken for the newspaper with my mum between 1958 to 1960s I would love to find that picture if anyone can find it
I remember having a polio sugar about age 11. A few weeks later I had excrutiating backache was hospitalised with what they called an infection at the bottom of my spine. My dad said it looked like a mild attack of polio. I was in hospital for a few months and then a plaster cast put round my back twice. This lasted for about three months. I was off school for months. I had to sit one of my intelligence tests in hospital. All in all I didnt get any of my five children vaccinated. All very healthy they in turn havent had their children vaccinated.
You and your children have been protected by the fact that the vast majority of other children around them and you have been vaccinated.
I’m complete opposite. I wish I had been vacinated with the MMR it didn’t exist when I was young, I got mumps at 5 and this resulted in a deaf ear for life 🙁
“Your Dad said”. Interesting that you didn’t write what the hospital said.
Where can I find my sons vaccination record. He was. Born in 1975
How can I find out about vaccinations iv had in childhood and after
If the records exist anywhere, they will be with your GP.
Note from the People’s History of the NHS team: IF you want to know more about vaccination, you might also be interested in a new book by historian Gareth Millward, on the history of vaccination in post-war Britain. You can read it online for free right here, thanks to the Wellcome Trust:
https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526126764/9781526126764.xml
And you can buy a hard-copy here if you prefer reading on paper: https://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526126771/
What vaccines should I have had in 1977 and how many doses
Exact doses and vaccines are difficult to trace through the history, but if you were born in 1977 you were probably offered vaccines against diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, tuberculosis and (if you were a girl) rubella.
If these records exist anywhere, you son should be able to get them through his GP.
Born in 1975, you/he were likely offered vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles and tuberculosis.
Being a child at that time, however, he may have been caught up in the pertussis vaccine crisis, in which reports of potential brain damage in some children from the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine meant many GPs and parents were hesitant to get the vaccine. The safety of the vaccine was subsequently proved through scientific testing, and the fact that it worked came when a predicted epidemic of whooping cough for 1978/79 came to pass. A version which had fewer contra-indicators was produced in the 1980s.
I remember having regular tb jabs in my lower arm leaving ‘daisy’ patterns which at 65yrs i still have today!….has there been any research into this about other effects longterm?..thnku x.
There has been lots of research into the long term effects of the BCG vaccination, but I wonder if what you may have experienced was a tine test (or several tine tests). These were tests to see if people had been exposed to TB, in order to identify cases early, for contact tracing, and to see who might benefit from the BCG vaccine. Tine testing involved puncturing the arm with an array of six needles, and often left a daisy-like pattern behind, especially on the arms of people who had been exposed to TB, and therefore reacted to the tine test. You can see one of these instruments here in the Science Museum’s wonderful online objects collection: https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co146559/tine-tester-to-test-for-exposure-to-tuberculosis-causing-bacteria-london-england-1945-1955-tine-tester
Does this ring any bells?
You might also have had the (rather similar) Heaf test — you can have a look here, and compare the instruments to what you remember, keeping in mind the date at which you experienced these medical interventions.
https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co8064497/tuberculin-tester-and-bcg-vaccinator-england-1980-1990-tuberculin-test
We live in America, my children were born in the UK in 1973 and 1974, is it possible to obtain their inoculation records. We have a measles epidemic here and I want to confirm they did receive the required shots. Thank you.
I’m afraid this kind of specific confidential information would only be available via your GP/the NHS. However, there is a blood test available to test immunity. Your children could get this through their doctors, who could then advise them as to whether vaccination would be advisable.
How big was the actual epidemic there?
I am living in the USA but I was born in England in 1947 , and I am not sure if the NHS was giving the vaccine for Measles , so I don’t know if I am protected if you could let me know if they were doing them in 1947 , then I am sure I would have had it
The measles vaccine was only developed in 1963 (with an improved version becoming widely available in 1968). The NHS itself opened its doors in 1948, and began vaccinating for measles in 1968, as soon as this second, safer vaccine was available. If you are concerned, it may help to know that there is a blood test available to test for immunity to measles.
What were they giving routinely then and at what ages in the 1960’s? (In the USA)
Really good to be able to read up on the history of immunisation, especially at this particular time, with the worry over measles, both in the UK & NZ, & possibly other countries too.
I was born in 1955, I do not know if I had measles as a child. Is there a way I can access my medical records from Australia. My maiden name was Wilsonham and I left England in Sept 1971. Thank you, hope you can help me
I’m afraid we can’t help with accessing medical records, but there is a blood test that can check for immunity. You could have a chat with your GP to see if this might be useful to you.
Thank you for this article, very interesting. I was born in 1969 and still have my laminated vaccination card, showing which vaccines I had (all available ones), though it wasn’t updated after I started school. I was one of the fortunate few vaccinated against measles, even though the vaccine was still quite new. My mother had a much younger brother, Peter. He caught measles – long before there was a vaccine. He became the one in a hundred children who gets a life-changing complication (encephalitis, I think). Then he became the one in a thousand who dies. He was five, and it was one week before Christmas. No wonder I and my brother were properly vaccinated. I do get very annoyed with the people who think measles is a minor illness.
I have a question: I was vaccinated (once only, as far as I can tell) against measles. I caught rubella all by myself. But I have never, as far as I know, been vaccinated against mumps. Should I ask for a catch-up MMR vaccination? I’m not worried for myself, but I’d hate to be a symptomless “Typhoid Mary”.
Thank you for sharing your story. In reply to your question, I would say it’s probably best to ask your GP about whether or not you should get a ‘catch-up’ vaccine. As far as we on the People’s History team know, there is no known ‘carrier state’ in mumps, though you can have it without having symptoms. There is a blood test for whether you have immunity, which might be useful.
Back in the late 1940’s both my parents contracted TB. They each spent years in sanitariums.
My Mother became pregnant with me & the doctors were furious. Apparently at that time they had not come across a case of a pregnant woman with the disease. Seven doctors worked on her case & the consensus of 6 of the doctors was abortion. One doctor said no & my Mon went with it. She went full term & I was given the BCG vaccine a few hours after birth. They ended up saying the pregnancy saved Mom’s life because it raised her collapsed lungs.
I am now 68 & have mostly been healthy. Now I have thyroid problems but I suspect there is no connection. Were there ever any long term effects of the BCG discovered?
What an interesting story: thank you for sharing it. Another visitor to our site has contributed the amazing album her mother kept while in a TB sanatorium in the years just before and just after the 1948 advent of the NHS — in fact, it was where she met her husband! You can see pictures from that album by visiting our Virtual Museum. To answer your question, there are no known long-term effects of the BCG vaccination other than continued protection from tuberculosis infection (for up to 50-60 years, amazingly, from just one dose, though its efficacy does decline over time, and it does not perfect protection) AND a continued risk of falsely testing positive for TB with some of the common screening techniques.
First class summary.
Normally I am against statutory insistence, but in the case of parents who prevent their children having inoculations, I think protection of children is no 1.
Good Qand A followed.
Peter f. Cornwall
I was born in 1944 and suprised at how many injections between 1944-1945
looks like about 30, unless some injections covered more than one vaccination.I also had boosters in 1948 and 1958.
Was it common to have that many injections back in 1944?
I also cut my knee in 1953 and was given a tetanus.injection. Then my stay in hospital, I was given penaccilian injections to fight the infection. And thanks to the doctors and nurses, I fully recovered.
If you scroll down ,you can view the records below.
Diphtheria Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
2nd Booster
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Tetanus Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
2nd Booster
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Pertussis Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
Polio Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
2nd Booster
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
HIB Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
Hep. B Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Part 3
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
Pneumococcal Part 1
Given on: 08 Oct 2019
Part 2
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
Part 3
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
Rotavirus Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 25 Jan 1945
Men. A Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Men. B Part 1
Due on: 28 Dec 1944
Part 2
Due on: 22 Feb 1945
Part 3
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
Men. C 1st Booster
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Men. W Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Men. Y Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1958
Measles Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
Mumps Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
Rubella Part 1
Due on: 02 Nov 1945
1st Booster
Due on: 02 Mar 1948
Back
Hi there is talk of the big vaccine helping to treat corona virus, I am sure I had a big vacine in my childhood at school I am 66. …..I was wondering if this is why some people are getting the virus and many are not, although very many I am sure have had it mildly including myself, and obviously many may not of had this vacine fir some reason, seems funny to me that some very old people are pulling through this virus yet many young are passing away, do they still give out the big vacine in schools I was just wondering
Sorry I meant b c g vacine
Hi and thank you for sharing this: it certainly does seem to be an exhaustive list of vaccinations! In answer to your question about BCG vaccinations, it is no longer routinely offered to all children as it was from 1953-2005 (though many health authorities had abandoned this in practice much earlier), but is available to certain groups who are at higher risk of exposure to tuberculosis. You can read about current policy here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/bcg-tuberculosis-tb-vaccine/
Why would I have been vaccinated on my foot… was this a trial, 1959
Hi! Your question was a bit of a poser, even for us. We’ve consulted with our tame vaccinations expert, Dr Gareth Millward (you can read his book, Vaccinating Britain: Mass Vaccination and the Public since the Second World War FOR FREE from here: https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526126764/9781526126764.xml), and tentatively think that you may have been vaccinated there in order to avoid having a visible vaccination scar (both smallpox and TB vaccinations do leave a visible mark). But we’d need to know a little more to be sure! Do you know what the vaccination was for, by any chance?
It would have been smallpox as far as I’m aware. I had TB at secondary school and polio sugar lump at primary. I just dont know anyone else with their vaccination on their foot
My brother, sister, and I (Born 1951, ’53 and ’56) were all vaccinated on the soles of our feet to avoid having the scar on our arm. I have no record, but it looks like a smallpox scar. This was standard practice at the clinic in New Ferry, Wirral. Any baby-boomers without a scar on their arm should check the soles of their feet. They may be surprised!
My gp practice do not have any of my childhood vaccinations on record, only my rubella at 12 years old. Shortly after I had boosters, how is this possible if they are saying there is no records of any vaccines.
My mother had guaranteed all her children had all the vaccinations due and remembers that we had them by the health visitor under the same roof as the GP. We’re the records filed differently in 1969?
Hi guys , I was born in the UK in 1998, I was wondering whether I would have been given a Hep B vaccine
Hi! Definitely check with your GP, but Hep B only became part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule in 2017. Before that, it was given to children who might be at special risk, however, so whether you would have received it depends on your personal circumstances. Here’s what the NHS says: ‘Babies born to mothers with hepatitis B have been offered the hepatitis B vaccine from birth since the 1980s. During autumn 2017, this vaccine became available in the routine childhood vaccination schedule for all babies as part of the 6-in-1 vaccine.’ Find out more here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/hepatitis-b-vaccine/
As a child born 1962 I remember going to the health clinic for jabs and sugar cube. But when I was at secondary 1974 everyone in the class was taken for BCG test but was told it you were born in 1962 you didn’t need fascinating have no scar on any arm do you know why
I would uphold any vaccination programme, having been born in 1947 I was seriously ill and off school for 6 weeks with whooping cough (pertussis). In the 1960’s I saw my friends younger brother suffer with Polio and use the use of his legs forever. School friends ill with Scarlet fever and my whole class of school with Mumps of which I had a natural immunity but was sent home anyway.
For those of you resistant to vaccine, I would read more on the deaths and side effects of serious illnesses on non vaccinated children. My own daughter born in the 60’s was vaccinated for everything I never saw anyone suffer anything other than maybe an achy limb at site of vaccination. Please think again and listen to previous generations experience.
I just want to add, I am not against vaccines, though in 1960 I almost died from one. I was rushed to the hospital and later at home in an enclosed breathing tent in my crib.
Hi, My sister contracted Rubella when she was 15 in 1961. She was on life support for 10 days and had Septicemia and Encephalitis through it. She did survive it but was very ill. My other sister had whooping cough when she was 18 months old and I had mumps, when I was 8.in 1963. There were a lot of childhood illnesses about, my cousin had polio also.
We all survived and I do think the vaccinations then were useful, but I do believe that the modern vaccination programs are designed to make a profit, but none are going to be as profitable as the one coming up.
I remember my son in law refused to give consent for my eldest grandson to have the MMR vaccine in around 2001. He said it had been proved to cause autism. I told him that as far as I was aware this was unproven but what I did know is that MEASLES KILLS CHILDREN. My grandson was booked in for his vaccination that day.
My husband remembers his friend from school in the 1950s cut his hand on an outside tap, contracted tetanus and later died aged 10.
Born in 59. I had all the vaccinations due plus many more or boosters for travelling abroard. The strange thing was I never had a BCG scar. The rest of my family had them. Even later when studying nursing I had to have the BCG again, again no scar. I had been exposed to someone with active TB four years earlier when working as a carer.
How many people would die from influenza each year if we didn’t have a flu vaccination. Thanks for modern science is all I can say. And ‘thank you’ to the scientists for working round the clock on the most recent vaccines. Absolute genius
I too am a great believer in the traditional childhood vaccinations. The one for covid I have my doubts purely because I feel there is much manipulation of data around this virus. Whoever heard of a virus that you had to be tested for to know if you had it? Suddenly no or little flu (so far anyway)? Every year there is a dominant flu virus – this year the dominant virus happens to be covid and its a bad one (just as other years you can have milder or more severe strains of flu). Interestingly while the flu jab is very variable in the duration of protection esp for older cohort, if you contract the flu naturally you get a longer lasting immunity. I would love to know the man hours put into the gov funded covid vaccines and be able to work out the hourly rate plus pofit margin just from the funding alone let alone the profit when it comes to sales.
I am in agreement with you! Lots to think about. If only people would do more of that!
I would like to determine if I ever received a vaccine for Polio and when. I lived in Cilfynydd until 1968. (Born 1948).
I was born in 1955 and have found several vaccination cards. Polio, BCG, and Smallpox are clear.
Can anyone tell me what the 4 W.D.P. (P.D) vaccinations that I received in 1956 und 1960 are?
I can imagine Diphtheria und Pertussis are the D and P but was Tetanus included and what is W. and what is P.D. Do hope someone can help me in order to complete a digital immunisation form.
Hi! In 1956, W.D.P. was a term used in Britain to refer to ‘Diptheria Pertussis prophylactic’. You can check the meaning of this and many other early abbreviations for different types of vaccine sera here: https://www.bmj.com/content/2/4983/38
Do you mean he just didn’t want a shot?
I had the whooping cough vaccine in 1944 as a baby and developed a very bad reaction to it which included severe vomiting and coughing which would last about a week. This came back every year and was truly frightening. I wonder if anyone else experienced this. As a result my daughter was advised not to have this particular vaccine, but she too developed vomiting from the age of two which was similar to mine and occurred every year. She was sometimes hospitalised . This stopped after the age of five.
My daughter lives in Middle East she was born 1993 lives in Scotland would she have had the yellow fever vaccine
The yellow fever vaccine is not part of the standard NHS vaccine programmes in England or Scotland, since the disease is not endemic here. So your daughter would have had to request and pay for that vaccine separately to access it here in the Uk. She may have been vaccinated in the Middle East, but national policies on this vary.
I have been to my GP re my early vaccinations and they are not recorded on my paper records. Is there any chance that they are archived and on microfilm anywhere as the GP who carried out the immunisations had passed away. I can’t believe that it was not recorded.
Your vaccination records may be archived, since there are a range of statutory requirements that have been put in place to preserve NHS records, including those related to general practice — but accessing them may not be easy, or even possible, depending on how and when they were created, when they were closed, and where they were deposited. It may be easier to get a sense of which vaccines you received by looking at the standard vaccination programmes that pertained when you were a child and young adult (check out the comments above for useful sources!).
“Vaccinations against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tuberculosis and polio were all provided to children by 1956”. The DTP stand for Diphtheria, TETANUS and Pertussis, not Tuberculosis.
Yes, that’s right. The TB vaccine was given separately.
All the anti vax protesters are hypocrites who should be reminded that they all have been vaccinated when children against measles diphtheria tetanus polio etc etc . Most of them would probably not be here today without these vaccinations . Maybe one day there will be a vaccine for ignorance!