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<p>The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) provides independent
expert advice on the United Kingdom’s immunisation programme. As an independent committee,
it is well placed to ensure the latest and most appropriate evidence has been considered
on potential changes to scheduling within the vaccine programme. It bases its advice
on review of a wide range of scientific and other evidence, including from the published
literature, commissioned studies such as independent analyses of vaccine effectiveness
and cost effectiveness.</p><p>The JCVI advised that a two-dose schedule for the infant
pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) Prevenar13 is appropriate for the UK. Its advice
takes into account the public health aspects of any potential change to the vaccination
schedule, such as the potential impact on cases of infectious disease. The JCVI consulted
relevant stakeholders on its proposed advice, between January and April 2018, to ensure
that its advice reflects all the evidence.</p><p>The JCVI’s advice on the infant pneumococcal
programme was given full consideration, including the potential public health implications,
before a decision was made to implement it. The UK frequently adopts innovative immunisation
schedules and we regularly change the vaccine schedule following the advice of our
independent expert committee, as we are doing in this case.</p><p>The decision is
based on the excellent effectiveness of the vaccine and years of high uptake, which
has helped to provide protection to the rest of the population and has successfully
controlled many types of pneumococcal disease in this country. The evidence shows
that two doses will sustain the excellent results we have already seen. We are confident
that the world-class disease surveillance system we have in this country means our
expert committee can closely monitor the impact of this change. This is set out in
the JCVI’s minutes which are attached.</p>
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