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China's immunization programme has a long history and is widely regarded as one of the country's most successful public health endeavours. Variolation for smallpox in China in the 1100s was the earliest recorded immunization in history. Smallpox elimination was one of the first acts of the newly created government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and preceded the start of the Intensified Global Smallpox Eradication Program. Early in the new country's establishment, the government implemented a policy of putting the emphasis on prevention. In the 1960s, the government supported mass immunization campaigns with huge impact. In 1978, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was established, and by 1988, 1990 and 1995, China achieved its Universal Childhood Immunization (UCI) goals of >85% coverage by province, county and village respectively. In 2000, the state was declared polio-free.1 Vaccine preventable diseases targeted by the EPI are at low levels of incidence overall. The addition of hepatitis B vaccine to the EPI in 2003 has substantially reduced rates of new infection with this highly endemic disease.
In 2007, the central government announced it would expand the National Immunization Plan (NIP). Based on the present NIP vaccines programme, hepatitis A (HepA) vaccine, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (DCSM) vaccine, Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine have been added, and given to children free of charge in order to prevent Hepatitis A, DCSM, Japanese encephalitis, measles, rubella and mumps. Furthermore, certain people are immunized with Hemorrhagic fever vaccine free of charge in prevalent regions, and Anthrax vaccine and Leptospira vaccine would be reserved for emergency as diseases outbreak. By expanding the NIP, NIP vaccines increase from 6 to 14, and contagious diseases, which can be prevented, increased from 7 to 15 .2 In this latest stage of the NIP, China is trying to fully implement the expanded national immunization plan, to keep the poliomyelitis eradication in status quo, to eliminate measles and control Hepatitis B, and further decrease rates of target diseases. Three stages of China's National Immunization Plan:
Stage 1 - (1950-1977)