School entry immunisation certificates: a useful tool for immunisation surveillance?

Abstract

In New South Wales, all children starting school must provide a certificate of immunisation to school authorities. We conducted a study to document the usefulness of immunisation certificates in surveillance of immunisation uptake in these children.
In late 1994 we reviewed immunisation records in all primary schools in the Auburn local government area. We classified a child’s immunisation status as ’complete immunisation’, ’incomplete immunisation’ or ’invalid’.
Schools had immunisation certificates for 72% of all kindergarten children. Seventeen per cent of kindergarten children did not have any form of written immunisation documentation. Only 57% of kindergarten children who presented an immunisation certificate were fully immunised.
Until further evaluation is done, we suggest that immunisation certificates are not an adequate source of data for determining uptake rates in children starting kindergarten in New South Wales. They may also be of only limited value in the containment of vaccine preventable disease outbreaks in schools.