National immunisation schedule
The purpose of the national immunisation schedule is to ensure the timely and comprehensive immunisation of children and teenagers. All of the vaccines that are included in the schedule are supplied by the state.
Newborns are usually vaccinated against tuberculosis at the maternity ward.
Toddlers are vaccinated by family physicians or family nurses.
Schoolchildren and teenagers are vaccinated by school nurses.
As a result of eventual sufficient vaccination coverage being achieved, the collective immunity of the population will also be achieved. This means that any respective infectious disease that has been vaccinated against will no longer be able to spread as there will no longer be enough susceptible individuals. The immunity of the population must be ensured and maintained until the disease in question has been completely eliminated. If vaccination coverage is insufficient or uneven, pathogens can remain in circulation and new outbreaks may occur.
Different countries may have different immunisation schedules. This arises from the different infectious disease situations in those individual countries and their differing healthcare systems. Furthermore, equally differing economic options and the healthcare priorities for different countries are also amongst the reasons for variable immunisation schedules.
Those vaccinations are prioritised where they help to prevent infectious diseases which have severe consequences and also to ease the burden caused by those diseases, including complications and death.
In Estonia, children and teenagers are usually vaccinated against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, the rotavirus infection, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, rubella, measles, mumps, polio, HPV, and Haemophilus influenza type B. Adults are also vaccinated against diphtheria at an interval of ten years.
|
AGE |
VVACCINE AND NUMBER OF VACCINATIONS |
| 12 hours | HepB 1* |
| 1–5 days | BCG |
| 2 months | RV 1 |
| 3 months | DTaP-IPV-Hib-HepB 1 + RV 2 |
| 4,5 months | DTaP-IPV--Hib-HepB 2 + RV 3** |
| 6 months | DTaP-IPV -Hib-HepB 3 |
| 1 year | MMR 1 |
| 1,5-2 years | DTaP-IPV-Hib-HepB 4 |
| 6–7 years | DTaP-IPV |
| 12-14 years | HPV*** |
| 13 years | MMR 2 |
| 15–16 years | dTaP |
| Adults, at an interval of ten years | dT 7 |
An explanation of abbreviations:
HepB - hepatitis B vaccine
BCG - tuberculosis vaccine
RV - rotavirus vaccine
DTaP-IPV-Hib-HepB - diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, inactivated polio, and Haemophilus influenza type B, and hepatitis B vaccine (hexavalent vaccine)
MMR - measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine
DTaP-IPV - diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, and inactivated polio (quadrivalent vaccine)
HPV - vaccine against human papillomavirus
dTpa - diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine
dT - diphtheria and tetanus vaccine
* Only for the at-risk new-borns of HBsAg-positive mothers, or mothers who were not analysed for hepatitis B during pregnancy.
** Only in the case of a heptavalent vaccine against rotavirus.
*** The main target group is 12-14 year old boys and girls. Additionally, free vaccination is provided for people aged 15-18.
Read more: the national immunisation schedule.