Parents urged to vaccinate children

WITH figures showing an ongoing decline in the up-take rate of some recommended vaccines, public health experts have urged parents not to be complacent about immunising their children.

Data released this week shows parents remain slow to avail of the recommended three doses of the vaccine that protects against meningitis C.

Data for the last quarter of 2010, supplied by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), shows the rate of up-take for meningitis C down to 82% — considerably below the World Health Organization (WHO) target of 95% — and 11 percentage points down on the 93% uptake rate for the same period the previous year.