Despite the corona pandemic, the vaccination coverage among young children in Flanders remained very high for basic vaccines last year. Hearing screening also remained up to standard. Kind en Gezin will announce this on Thursday.
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The new vaccination figures, which are available on the website of the Flemish agency Growing up, of which Kind en Gezin is a part, show that at least 93.2 percent of newborn children received a first dose of the Hexavalent vaccine in 2020, which protects against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae b in the first months of life. The proportion for the third dose of the Hexavalant vaccine is slightly lower, but still around 90 percent. At least 92.7 percent of the children in 2019 received the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella in the second year of life. And at least 92.3 percent of children in 2019 received a vaccine against polio in the second year of life.
The online dashboard, which shows the percentage of children for which a vaccine has been registered per vaccine, shows that the figures are slightly lower than in 2019. But Nele Wouters, spokesperson for Kind en Gezin, clarifies that the figures are adjusted afterwards every year. for example because vaccinations are registered later. “In addition, we noticed that there were families who were anxious in the first phase of the pandemic and went to the GP for vaccination,” says Wouters. This was often unfamiliar territory for GPs, which may have made registration more difficult. According to Kind en Gezin, the vaccination rate has remained relatively stable compared to 2019.
In addition to the basic vaccinations, 98 percent of children born in Flanders received a hearing test. Only the number of eye tests fell to almost 100,000 last year.
“Corona had a huge impact on the services provided by Kind en Gezin”, says Katrien Verhegge, administrator-general Growing up, in the press release. “Nevertheless, we reorganized very quickly in March of last year. Despite the lockdown, we committed to vaccinate young children and monitor newborns with hearing tests, among other things. Those sessions ran smoothly, also thanks to the thousands of telephone calls and teleconsultations by our nurses and all other local Kind en Gezin team members. During all those telephone and video consultations, the other questions and concerns of parents were also adequately addressed.”
“Our 2020 figures show that our effort has paid off. We kept in touch with the families with young children. The local presence of the Kind en Gezin teams and their flexibility have ensured that Flanders remains at the forefront of medical-preventive care for young children,” says Verhegge.
Flemish Minister of Health Wouter Beke (CD&V) is also satisfied. “The corona vaccine has received all the attention in recent months. Yet there are many other important vaccinations that protect us and that are needed at a young age. Our strong vaccination tradition and the flexibility of Growing Up’s staff have allowed these inoculations and other studies to continue. I am therefore pleased that the many parents have responded to this powerful service. In this way we can keep the vaccination tradition and vaccination coverage in Flanders high.”
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