Varicella Vaccine Added to School Immunization Schedule for 2012 – 2013

This announcement comes as part of Abu Dhabi Vaccination Campaign which was previously announced under the theme “Protect Your Health with Vaccination”. The campaign highlights different vaccination programs which include; childhood vaccines, school vaccines, adult vaccines, Hajj and Omrah vaccines and traveler’s vaccines.

Dr. Farida Al Hosani, Manager of Communicable Diseases Department at HAAD said: “starting from the academic year 2012 – 2013 varicella vaccine which protects against chickenpox will be introduced to grade 1 students, each student will receive 2 doses of the vaccine. Added to that, protection against pertussis (whooping cough) added to tetanus and diphtheria to grade 1 and 11 students.”

“Varicella vaccine was introduced to the childhood vaccination schedule since October 2010. It is provided to all children at age one year who were born in September 2009 and after. When these children reach grade 1, they will receive 1 dose from the vaccine. According to HAAD statistics, there was around 11,748 cases of chickenpox reported to HAAD in 2011 and most of these cases were among school-age children. Therefore, we add varicella vaccine in the school vaccination schedule to decrease this number and eliminate chickenpox outbreaks in the schools”, Dr. Farida Al Hosani added.

These vaccines will be added to the previous immunization schedule which includes vaccine against poliomyelitis, vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, for grade 1 students, vaccine against rubella for female students at grade 9, vaccine against poliomyelitis for grade 11 students and vaccine against cervical cancer for female students at grade 11.

Dr. Farida Al Hosani added: “all vaccination programs are important to protect the community from major infectious diseases, including school vaccination program. School aged children need additional doses of some vaccines to strengthen their immunity against specific infectious diseases. They also need to take some vaccines they didn’t take before, and some vaccines are required to be given for teens or pre-teens such as the vaccine that protects against cervical cancer.

Dr Mubarak Al Darmaki, Health Section Manager, School Operation Sector said: “The expected number of students who will receive the vaccination in current academic year is about 58,000 students in both public and private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Around 31,000 of those students will be from Abu Dhabi city, about 23,000 students are from the Eastern Region, and the approximate number of those students from the Western Region is 4,000 students. It is also important to highlight the role of schools and parents in vaccine uptake by children after collecting their consent.”

“We are always looking for reaching to the whole targeted groups, and ensuring that all the targeted students have received all the required vaccines. This would be achieved through HAAD role in implementing the best worldwide practices, which based on scientific evidence and collaboration with ADEC and SEHA on their roles for the continuous monitoring for programs on-going and reaching to the community to encourage them to comply with these programs.” added Dr. Farida Al Hosani.

HAAD emphasized on the importance role of the school health to encourage parents on the importance of ensuring that their children have taken all the required vaccines according to their age. HAAD will distribute educational materials on this topic to all private and public schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The following table shows the School Immunization Schedule for the academic year 2012 – 2013, including the new changes *: