Results of School Entry Requirement Program for Immunization, 2017

Park Kwangsuk, Kim Miyoung, Kong Insik
Division of VPD control & NIP, Center for Infectious Disease Control, KCDC

The most cost-effective way to prevent infectious diseases is to achieve and maintain the vaccination coverage above levels sufficient to confer herd protection to the community. In Korea, the complete immunization coverage rate of 3-year-old children was 89.2%. The government established a strategy for more than 95% immunization coverage through routine vaccinations and/or supplemental immunization activities. In this report, we describe the background, status, and results of the School Entry Requirement Program in 2017.
The School Entry Requirement Program verified whether children aged 4 to 6 years received or did not receive the four types of booster vaccinations for children of this age, every year, from March to June.
The immunization registry system of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was linked with the school entry information system of the Ministry of Education. Immunization verification included the fifth dose of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP), fourth dose of polio, second dose of measle-mumps-rubella (MMR), and fourth dose of inactivated Japanese encephalitis (JE) or second dose of live attenuated vaccines. The number of school entries in 2017 was 458,397 and the complete immunization coverage of the four vaccines was 89.8%. Immunization coverage rates were as follows: fifth DTaP, 96.8%; fourth polio, 98.1%; second MMR, 98.2%; and second JE (live attenuated) or fourth JE (inactivated), 90.9%. The registry rate of individuals’ immunization records improved from 53.3% in December 2016 to 88.5% in July 2017. From 2018, the program further expanded to verify for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis or tetanus and diphtheria vaccines for both boys and girls, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls among students entering middle schools.

Keywords: Vaccination coverage, Child, Government, Vaccination, Immunization registry system