ABSTRACT
This chapter compares China's vaccination policy and progress with those from other countries regarded as having a good record in childhood vaccination. The Chinese Government's efforts to control and prevent vaccine-preventable diseases are aided by the World Health Organisation's Expanded Program on Immunisation, which promotes timely vaccination, effective surveillance, and strengthening of China's routine immunisation programme. The availability of vaccines in certain countries is dependent on the epidemiological context: half of all cases of Japanese encephalitis occur in China and transmission is essentially contained within Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Far East. The chapter shows vaccine coverage rates for China, US, Finland, UK, Australia, and Germany for the most widely available vaccines. In 2002, the China Ministry of Health embarked on a project with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization to fully integrate hepatitis B vaccine into the Expanded Program on Immunisation in China's 12 western provinces and in government-designated poor counties in ten central provinces.
