Immunization coverage
Immunization coverage means the percentage of the population that has been immunized against a disease.
It's important partly because we want to protect as many people as possible from these diseases. But it's also important because the more people who are protected, the greater the protection for everyone.
When a large percentage of the population has been immunized, a disease just can't take hold. So even if that disease gets introduced into our community, it won't be able to infect enough people for an outbreak to start. (Scientists call this herd immunity, because they first noticed it among livestock living together in close quarters on farms.)
Questions & answers about immunization coverage
In other countries, when immunization rates have dropped significantly, diseases have reappeared — often with fatal results.
It's the percentage of a group of people — say, a particular neighbourhood or city, or an age group — who receive one or more vaccines of interest.
In British Columbia, immunization coverage is routinely measured by the BC Centre for Disease Control.
Yes. There are national and provincial targets for immunization rates against most vaccine preventable diseases.
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