By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

According to the Swedish Public Health Agency’s and the Medical Products Agency’s joint annual report for 2019, adherence to the vaccination program remains high: 97 percent of two-year-olds were fully vaccinated in 2019.

Image/CDC

Last year, not a single case of rubella and tetanus was reported, and only isolated cases of cutaneous diphtheria. Pneumococcal infections among children under the age of two remain at a low level. There were also fewer measles cases, 20, after two years with relatively many due to major outbreaks. About 30 people fell ill with mumps, most aged 25-39 years.

The total number of cases of pertussis increased slightly compared with 2018. Since 2014, however, pertussis among infants has decreased significantly, and a small decrease was also seen in 2019 compared with the year before.

In addition, an increasing proportion of girls are also vaccinated against HPV: At the end of 2019, 86 percent of all 13-year-old girls were vaccinated with at least one dose of HPV. vaccine and 80 percent with two doses.

In September 2019, vaccination against rotavirus infection was introduced in the childhood vaccination program, and from the autumn term 2020, vaccination against HPV is offered to all children, regardless of gender, in year five.

Vaccination against rotavirus has got off to a good start. Vaccination coverage was close to 90 percent among the children who were the first to be covered by the vaccination program.

“We have a well-functioning and stable vaccination program that we must take care of”, says Sören Andersson, unit manager at the unit for vaccination programs at the Swedish Public Health Agency.