Experience Sharing onThe Third Conference on the Co-ordination of Planned Immunisation in Major Mainland Cities

Primary Care Public Health Nursing Service

Experience Sharing on

The Third Conference on the Co-ordination of Planned Immunisation in Major Mainland Cities

by

CHAN Oi-fong, Clara, Senior Nursing Officer (Surveillance Section), School Immunisation Teams,

Centre for Health Protection

On the 8^th and 9^th of November, 2006, I attended the ¡¥Third Conference on the Co-ordination of Planned Immunisation in Major Mainland Cities¡¦ organised by the Co-ordination Team of Planned Immunisation in Major Mainland Cities and hosted by Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention ("Shenzhen CDC") at Shenzhen Donghu Hotel in Lo Wu District of Shenzhen.  About 74 representatives from the Public Health Bureaux, CDCs and universities of various provinces, municipals and districts of the Mainland, including me and a doctor from the Department of Health (DH) as the representatives of Hong Kong, took part in the conference.

The conference, with the theme ¡¥Immunisation Policy and its Management', was primarily a sharing session and a symposium on planned immunisation work.  I attended the conference with the hope of understanding more about the current immunisation work and policy of the Mainland as well as the difficulties encountered, so that experience can be drawn for reference when formulating and enhancing the service plan of our School Immunisation Teams.

The theme of the conference had been one of the topics mentioned in the 'Regulations on Administration of Vaccine Circulation and Preventive Vaccination' promulgated by the State Council and the 'Guidelines on Immunisation' issued by the Ministry of Health.  The Regulations, promulgated on 16 March 2005, has come into force on 1 June 2005.

Immunisation planning is of great significance to and plays an important role in disease prevention and control as well as the development of public health system.  In the Mainland, seven Category I Vaccines which are offered to newborn babies free of charge include hepatitis B vaccine, B.C.G. vaccine, poliomyelitis vaccine, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine, measles vaccine, encephalitis B vaccine and meningococcal meningitis A vaccine.  In Hong Kong, free vaccine inoculation services are provided by the DH to protect children from nine infectious diseases, namely tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B.

During the conference, representatives shared the experiences of enforcing the Regulations and the problems encountered.  In some of the better-off Mainland provinces and municipalities with sufficient funds, there are designated immunisation clinics which conform to the standard and are equipped with adequate refrigerating facilities for vaccines as well as professionally trained and qualified medical practitioners, assistant medical practitioners and nurses.  Training course for staff would be conducted at least once a year.  Moreover, the authority would make use of feature articles and programmes through the media to publicize the implementation of the Regulations, which have resulted in drastic increase in vaccine acceptance and coverage rate leading to effective control of vaccine preventable diseases.

Most of the representatives shared their views that there were many challenges to be addressed during the enforcement of the Regulations, e.g. the problem of funding, high target immunisation coverage rate, the safety and cost-effectiveness of the vaccines consumed and the launch of health education campaign, etc.  In regard to the quality of staff, it is vital for them to have both professional qualification and rich experience.  With the trend of younger staff with higher professional qualification, the immunisation service has been improved remarkably in terms of both quality and quantity.

In fact, the challenges currently faced by our School Immunisation Teams are more or less the same as those met by the Mainland counterparts.  On the Mainland, all vaccinations take place at the clinics.  Children have to go through the process of making appointment, undergoing body check-up and completing the registration before receiving vaccination.  After vaccination, they are required to stay in a room for observation so that any adverse reactions can be managed efficiently.  In Hong Kong, children aged 0-6 usually receive vaccination in the Maternal and Child Health Centres and such arrangement is similar to that of the Mainland.  For Primary one and Primary Six school children, they would receive vaccination at schools offered by inoculators of our School Immunisation Teams.  Outreach immunisation service helps to achieve a high coverage rate, so that vaccine preventable diseases can be controlled effectively.

I very much appreciate the requirement of the Mainland nurseries and schools to check the immunisation records of the children at the time of admission.  If such measure is to be adopted in Hong Kong, those who are not fully immunised can be identified early and be reminded to get vaccinated as necessary.  Also, this would help to alert parents to the importance of their children¡¦s immunisation records and the need to apply for replacement as soon as possible if the records were lost.  This would minimize the need for revaccination due to the loss of immunisation records.

Overall speaking, I find the trip very fruitful as it allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the Mainland¡¦s immunisation programme and the regulations concerned.  It would be of great use to our work in Hong Kong.  I would recommend similar sharing sessions to my colleagues.

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