Medico-legal issues Resources

Vaccination and immunisation are slightly different things. Vaccination is the giving of a dose of antigen, for example, intranasally (the children’s ‘flu vaccine) or an intramuscular injection (the baby six-in-one vaccine). Immunisation refers to the process of receiving the vaccine and then becoming immune to the disease following this. Immunity can be developed after having the disease itself, but there is the risk of post-disease sequelae such as Ramsey-Hunt syndrome after ophthalmic shingles or severe epiglottitis with haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)