Immunising the population. Are we succeeding?

While diseases such as diphtheria and poliomyelitis have disappeared in this country, other vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, pertussis and rubella are quite common and result in epidemics from time to time. There are some groups in the community with particularly low coverage with specific vaccines and they need extra attention. Immunisation providers need to identify the barriers to achieving high coverage rates and adopt measures to overcome these barriers.