THOUSANDS of Gwent teenagers are being urged to "get protected" against potentially fatal diseases, through a campaign to improve vaccination rates.

The area has some of the lowest uptake rates in Wales for the likes of the three-in-one teenage booster against diphtheria, tetanus and polio.

The Get Protected campaign is organised by STRIVE (Strategy to Raise Immunisations and Vaccinations for Everyone), a partnership involving Public Health Wales and Aneurin Bevan Health Board experts.

Booklets and posters are being used to drive the campaign, through schools and colleges, with Get Protected being launched at Coleg Gwent's Cross Keys campus.

Risca community comprehensive school is one such, and 15-year-old pupil Sarah Bolton was on hand to have her booster at Risca Surgery, as part of the launch.

Youngsters and their parents are being encouraged to address the issue.

The three-in-one booster jab for teenagers is the vaccination causing the most concern among public health experts, regarding low uptake among this age group in Gwent.

All three diseases can have serious consequences, but though uptake in Gwent of vaccinations against them under one-year-olds is regularly above the 95 per cent target required to achieve herd immunity, it drops off dramatically among older children.

Among 16-year-olds in Gwent for the year ending September 30 2009, take-up of the booster jab was just 14.8 per cent, or around one-in-seven.

"It is an important vaccination because as children get older, the protection of the initial jabs they receive as babies reduces, but the top-up they should have as teenagers is enough to see them through," said Julia Osmond, principal health practitioner for Newport.

The Get Protected booklet also reminds teenagers of the importance of the MMR vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella, and the HPV vaccine for teenege girls, which protects against strains of the virus responsible for most cervical cancers.

More immunisation and vaccine information is available under the heading 'health topics' at www.publichealthwales.org