Mortality and illness JSNA

Health protection and infectious diseases

The borough of Rochdale has historically performed well in terms of immunisation and vaccination, achieving nearly the 95 per cent uptake target in some of the programmes. Like England as a whole, however, performance has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and uptake has declined slightly across the board.

What is health protection?

Health protection refers to actions we might take to protect the population's health from major incidents and other threats (NHS England, 2021). This is achieved through a number of programmes from vaccinations to sexual health screening, antibiotic prescription monitoring, other types of screening and the monitoring and actions around outbreaks of disease.

Types of vaccines available

There are a number of vaccines that are routinely offered to everyone for free on the NHS. These are mostly administered during childhood, particularly in the first few months and years after birth. They are also primarily given to high-risk population groups such as the elderly, healthcare workers, pregnant women and people with long-term conditions (NHS, 2018).

Some travel vaccines can also be accessed in a local surgery, but others may only be available privately. Reductions in antibiotic consumption are a target across all levels of government in order to support the Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy.

Less common infectious diseases

NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised services to deal with around 100 less common infectious diseases to ensure that people receive high-quality care whilst safeguarding against the spread of diseases.

Statistics on health protection and infectious diseases

Guidance and information on health protection and infectious diseases