Immunisation "Green Book"
From Ganfyd
The Green Book states UK national policy on vaccination and immunisation
The latest edition of the Green Book - 'Immunisation Against Infectious Disease 2006 - "The Green Book"' was published in December 2006.[1] It, and any subsequent new, revised, or draft chapters are or will be available for download from:
- The Public Health England website here. (The Vaccine Update newsletter - produced approximately monthly - should also available via this site. Note that the once-familiar www.immunisation.nhs.uk website, which was taken down in ?2009 was resuscitated as http://immunisation.dh.gov.uk/ in 2011. This version of the website became very good, with the current version of the chapter clearly displayed, with the date on which it was updated, and earlier, superceded versions still available, to allow you to see what a person should have had at the time. This, in turen, was shut down in March 2013 and been replaced by a poorer version, which fails to state when chapters were updated, or to allow access to earlier versions, on the Public Health England website.
Vaccination policy evolves as more evidence becomes available, and as new vaccines are developed. Policy is changed via official letters from the Department of Health in England, and the competent bodies in other administrations, usually based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) (although political considerations may also apply). In England these letters come from the chief medical officer, the chief nursing officer, and the chief pharmaceutical officer.
Fortunately, not only can the most recent edition of the Green Book be accessed via the above web sites, but the DH site also has revised chapters, and late-draft versions of new chapters. Revised chapters are often marked as "draft". They are, nevertheless, generally considered to be the current policy.
The previous hard copy edition, 'Immunisation Against Infectious Disease 1996 - "The Green Book"' was published in 1996 by: Department of Health (England), Welsh Office, Scottish Office Department of Health, and DHSSPS Northern Ireland. (NB - some of these bodies have now evolved; links are to their (November 2005) incarnation.)
Hard copies of the Green Book are no longer produced, as the latest version is now out of date. Current versions of the chapters should be downloaded and referred to instead.
