보건복지부 영문홈페이지

First disclosure of the index for the prevention of infection diseases among Korean children; complete vaccination rate 86.3% (among those aged three)

The kinds of vaccination people have missed will be made known to them and aggressively control the vaccination for those who have missed

-  A Nationwide campaign and an online event are held for the improvement of the vaccination rate from Apr.-

 

  KCDC (Director Jeon, Byung Yul) announced the statistics of the national vaccination rate used as a major indicator for a nation’s disease control policy performance and the assessment of child health for the first time.

 

 “2011 Vaccination Rate Survey” jointly conducted by KCDC and Chungnam National University was carried out on 7,040 children born in 2007 around the nation and was recognized as the nationally authorized statistics by Statistics Korea (Authorization number #01201).

 

※Survey method: Check the record of vaccination through the data system of vaccination registration control and phone survey (Sample error ±5% Confidence level 95%)

※ Only a few countries publish the national-level vaccination rate; US, Australia, New Zealand, and England, etc.  

 

According to the survey, the “complete vaccination rate” where a child has received all seven essential vaccinations fifteen times for each that are supposed to be completed by the time a child turns two has turned out to be 86.3% and there was no disparity between men and women.

  There is a standard vaccination schedule required for children with a low level of immunity to maintain the best-level defense immunity against infectious diseases and the rate of those who have received all the vaccinations that are needed at each age is called the “complete vaccination rate.”  

  Infectious diseases such as measles subject to vaccination can be controlled if the vaccination rate is maintained at 95% and higher and therefore, WHO and health authorities of each country are executing various health policies to improve the vaccination rate.

The complete vaccination rate that has been published this time has increased by more than

25% when simply compared to the national vaccination rate in 2008 (73.2% in 2008 -> 91.9% in

2011 (the basis of 2008 adjusted). The figure is higher than that of US (77.8%) that also

publishes the complete vaccination rate but is somewhat lower than that of Australia (92.6%).

 

※ Vaccination rate in 2008: a result of the survey on BCG, hepatitis B, DTaP, Polio, MMR,

Japanese encephalitis, chicken pox vaccination status among 1,026 children aged 19 months

and 6 years old (Seoul National University 2008)

                                                                  

The rate of individual vaccination completion was high and the rate was over 98% for vaccination

that is to be completed before the first birthday of a child (12 months old) (TB 98.8%, 3^rd

hepatitis 98.7% and 3^rd Polio 98.4%). However, the rate of vaccinations (4^th DTaP 93.5%, 2^nd

Japanese encephalitis 95.9%) that are to be done after a child’s first birthday turned out to be

somewhat low except for MMR (1^st, 99.2%).

 

   This indicates that the level of quantity of vaccination completed nationwide is sufficient but for each individual child, as much as 14% of them have missed one or two types of vaccination, meaning that there is still room for improvement (the complete vaccination rate: 86.3%). 

 

 The government has been implementing the policy to support vaccination in order to lessen the  financial burden of parents with young children and minimize the spread of infectious diseases. 

 

First of all, the portion to be paid by individual for one vaccination has been cut down to 5,000 won by steadily increasing the nationally essential vaccination assistance from 2009 in order to reduce the burden of cost which is a big obstacle to the increase of the vaccination rate (no charge in some areas) and the designated medical institutions have been also increased to 7 thousand nationwide so that children can receive the assistance benefit.

 

※ Free vaccination is available at some local governments thanks to additional assistance for vaccination implementation (128 autonomous districts and 6 megapolitan city areas))

In addition, from 2010, the government notifies parents of the vaccination dates through SMS so that parents would not forget them for their children and the record of vaccination can be checked via online and smart phone application. To get rid of the inconvenience of having to submit the certificate of vaccination when a child begins going to school, a simplified online service for confirmation of vaccination for school children is being offered from this year.

In the meantime, to achieve 95% of the complete vaccination rate for children aged two and

younger, children and the vulnerable who have missed some vaccinations will be closely taken

care of and managed with gradual assistance by linking the birth data and vaccination control

system data from 2012.

 

KCDC Director Jeon, Byung Yool explained, “the vaccination rate published this time is a result of the expansion of the assistance for essential vaccination by the government and the supportive service for children’s vaccination such as SMS service to notify the next vaccination schedule, etc.”

 

He also added, “However, this still falls short of 95% of the complete vaccination rate, which is

the disease eradication level and it is really important for children to get vaccination on standard

schedule in order to keep the best immunity.”

 

Particularly, when a child involved in community activities such as nursing facilities and school, etc is exposed to infectious disease, that one child could cause a wide spread of that disease. Therefore, not only for health of an individual but also for other children, it is recommended that whether one has missed any vaccination needs to be checked and if so, the missed vaccination shall be completed.  

 

KCDC said that it will carry out various campaigns for the improvement of the vaccination rate among children by working together with local governments, taking this announcement of the vaccination rate as an opportunity as a starting point.

 

For the vaccination campaign, vaccination promotion booths will be operated in 75 areas, starting from a community health clinic in Dongrae-gu, Busan on 13 Apr.  and a puppet show (an adventure of teun-teun-ie) will be performed.

 

By selecting 100 persons from among those who have downloaded the “vaccination helper application” for one month from 12 Apr. to 11 May, a giveaway event with prizes worth around 1.6 million won will be carried out.

How to participate in the event and the schedule for children vaccination can be found at http://nip.cdc.go.kr.