Data for other diseases for which vaccination is routinely offered in childhood include (England unless stated otherwise):5,8,9,10,11,12,13

·       pertussis averaged 4,700 laboratory-confirmed cases between 2011-2017, but was a high as 9,367 in 2012;

·       rotavirus had 2,705 laboratory reports in 2016 (England and Wales), down from 14,950 in 2013 when it was introduced into routine vaccination;

·       meningitis – of the 404 men B cases, 64 men C, 193 men W, 1 men X, and 88 men Y 102 cases in 2017-18, 28 per cent of cases were in children under 5 years, and 21 per cent in children aged 5-19 years;

·       hepatitis B saw potentially 445 acute cases of hepatitis B in 2017, of which six were in children aged under 15 years, and 59 cases were in the 15-24 age group;

·       diphtheria saw 5 cases of toxigenic corynebacteria isolates and 13 notifications of non-toxigenic C. diphtheriae in 2017 (all ages);

·       Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) sees fewer than 20 cases a year, mainly adults with chronic underlying health conditions;

·       tetanus – 5 cases (all adults) in 2017.

Polio is still included in the childhood vaccination programme as it is not yet eliminated globally; there were 29 cases of wild poliovirus across Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2018. In addition, 106 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (where attenuated vaccine enters and circulates in the water supply due to poor sanitation and morphs into an active pathogen) occurred in sub-Saharan African and on New Guinea.14

The WHO warns: “As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.”15