Catch up vaccinations

Catch up schedule 

To determine what vaccines are recommended for patients who are late entrants use the Catch-up table from the Immunisation Guidelines for Ireland - Chapter 2 written by the RCPI National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). (you will be directed to the HIQA website)

Use the column for the age of the patient, but remember the table assumes a patient hasn’t received any vaccines at all.

The footnotes at the bottom of the table provide additional supporting information.

 

7 principles for catch-up vaccination

  1. Men C vaccine given before 12 months, provides protection for a child’s 1st year of life only
    When a child reaches the age of 12 months, they need 1 dose of MenC (given in the HIB/MenC vaccine) only, regardless of whether or not they received Men C vaccine in their 1st year of life.
  2. PCV13 vaccine given before 12 months, gives protection for a child’s 1st year of life only
    When a child reaches the age of 12 months, they need 1 dose of PCV13 only, regardless of whether or not they have received PCV13 in their 1st year of life.
  3. If the 6 month vaccines are late e.g. given at 9 months, there is no need to delay the 12 month vaccines
  4. If a child needs to catch up with both 12 and 13 month vaccines, they can be given at one visit
  5. Once a child reaches the age of 2, NIAC advises they no longer need PCV13 vaccine or MenB vaccine, even if they have never had these vaccines
    The exception is children with at-risk conditions who should be vaccinated.
  6. Once a child reached the age of 10, they no longer need HIB vaccine
  7. A child over the age of 1 year, needs a single dose of MenC up until MenACWY is given in school

Download the Tips for Catch-Up Vaccination in General Practice (181kb) for a print friendly version of these principles.

Information for Healthcare Professionals on Catch-Up Vaccination: Children who have come to Ireland from other countries (2.5mb)

 

Interrupted immunisation courses

“If an immunisation course is interrupted, it should be resumed as soon as possible. It is not necessary to repeat the course, regardless of the time interval from the previous incomplete course*. The course should be completed with the same brand of vaccine if possible. * except cholera vaccine”. https://www.hiqa.ie/areas-we-work/national-immunisation-advisory-committee/immunisation-guidelines-ireland

Immunisation Schedules from other countries

If you are looking for information from other countries the following website from the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) http://vaccine-schedule.ecdc.europa.eu/Pages/Scheduler.aspx (you will be directed to the ECDC website)

  • gives all the vaccine schedules by EU country
  • provides a list of which countries use which vaccines
  • compares the schedule in Ireland with those another country

The following link can be used to look up immunisation schedules across the world https://immunizationdata.who.int/listing.html?topic=&location= (you will be directed to the Immunization Data website)

Translating records from other countries

The following links may be useful in translating immunisation records from other countries:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has translations of their Vaccine Information Statements (VIS) into many languages available at http://www.immunize.org/vis/?f=9 (you will be directed to the immunize.org website)

 

This page was updated on 15 February 2024