Immunization

About

Interactive immunization infographic

There is a wealth of credible and important immunization resources. This tool collates and highlights information and key national and provincial immunization resources for health-care providers.

To use the graphic, simply click on the graphic and hover over the immunization topic of interest. A list of subtopics within that channel will appear. Select the subtopic of interest, then select the resource.

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Clinical Resources

The following clinical resources can assist health care providers in their immunization practice.

New Immunization Program Updates and Q&As

These documents are developed to support immunization service providers in British Columbia.

These documents contain supplementary information and should be used as a complement to the guidelines for the use of the vaccine contained in the Communicable Disease Control Manual, Chapter 2: Immunization.

Question & Answer documents are dated to indicate the date of production. New information that reaches the public domain after the production date of these documents is therefore not incorporated, and practitioners must take responsibility to ensure they have the most recent knowledge and are using the most recent guidelines relating to the situation with which they are dealing.

Archived Q&As

New and Noteworthy

Rotavirus

Changes to the Rotavirus Immunization Program

Beginning May 2018 BC will begin transitioning to the use of pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5, RotaTeq®) in the infant rotavirus immunization program. The main difference with this product change is the immunization schedule, as the schedule for RotaTeq® is 3 doses, rather than 2 doses of Rotarix®. It is recommended that RotaTeq® be administered at 2, 4 and 6 months of age together with the other routine infant vaccines given at these ages.
Update to the rotavirus immunization program: product change Q&A (May 2018)
Letter to health care providers: Rotavirus immunization program: transitioning to pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5, RotaTeq®) (Apr 2018)

Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

School-based HPV vaccine program expansion for 2017/18:

Starting September 2017, BC's publicly funded immunization program will include HPV9 vaccine for grade 6 boys. Therefore all grade 6 students in BC, both female and male, will be offered the HPV9 vaccine series for free as part of the regular school-based immunization program. This vaccine may also be provided to eligible students through health care providers and local public health units if missed in the school setting. HPV9 vaccine will be provided as 2 doses given 6 months apart to grade 6 students. For more information please refer to the Ministry of Health announcement: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017HLTH0003-000027.
Updates to the HPV immunization program Q&A (Aug 2017)
Letter to health care providers: Expanded eligibility for HPV vaccination (Aug 2017)

Additional HPV Information: