The acceptance of three simultaneous vaccine injections recommended at 12 months of age.

Since January 2003, vaccination with Meningococcal C conjugate vaccine (MenCCV) is recommended at 12 months of age, at the same time as the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines. Most (83%) of a cohort of 751 children in north Queensland born in January 2003 received the three injectable vaccines simultaneously. Of the 122 children who had not received MenCCV with the other two vaccines, 88 (72%) had received it by 18 months of age. The median age of receipt of MenCCV in the children who had received the three vaccines simultaneously was 12.3 months, whereas the median age in the children who had not received it at the same time as the other two vaccines was 14.0 months. This study suggests that non-simultaneous vaccination puts children at-risk of receiving MenCCV late, or not at all, and has implications for the introduction of universal infant pneumococcal vaccination program, starting in January 2005.