Vaccines for babies at the health clinic in Heemstede.Image Arie Kievit
In the Netherlands, children receive vaccinations from infancy against twelve infectious diseases that can be serious, such as measles, mumps and polio. Despite the major health benefits of the vaccinations, the number of children receiving all shots is falling, according to figures from the RIVM about the national vaccination program.
For example, in the youngest age group for measles, the vaccination rate – the share of the population that is vaccinated against a certain disease – has now fallen below 90 percent for the first time in years. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses a standard of 95 percent for good herd immunity against this disease. Young, unvaccinated children will then also be protected.
The risk of measles outbreaks is growing worldwide, signals the WHO, partly because many countries have postponed vaccinations during the corona pandemic. The virus can cause symptoms such as fever and spots on the skin. In rare cases, complications such as meningitis arise.
State Secretary for Health Maarten van Ooijen calls the decrease in the number of vaccinations in children ‘really worrying’. Jeanne-Marie Hament, manager of the national vaccination program (RVP), points to the danger of outbreaks of infectious diseases. Moreover, a ‘health inequality’ can arise between people with and without vaccinations. She cites as an example the rise for the vaccination against HPV in Amsterdam’s Watergraafsmeer, with many residents with a strong socio-economic position. ‘There, about 80 percent of the young people get that shot. But in Amsterdam-West this is only about 20 percent.’
Patricia Bruijning, epidemiologist at UMC Utrecht, points out that it is important for policy not to focus on averages, but on locations where the number of vaccinations is substantially lower. Traditionally, these are the bible belt and around anthroposophical schools, ‘but that image is now becoming more diffuse’.
According to the RIVM, the decrease in the number of vaccinations administered to children may be due to the corona pandemic and the distrust that some people then developed against vaccines or the government in general. Bruijning thinks that communication about corona vaccines for children may also have played a role. ‘At first it was necessary, then it wasn’t. A change of course for understandable reasons, but perhaps some parents have started to think ‘oh, apparently it’s not that important’ with all vaccinations.
Start a conversation
Hament calls it crucial to talk to people about vaccination doubts. ‘We need to learn to listen better to each other,’ she says. The State Secretary also wants to ‘understand better how we can better approach groups that are not participating at the moment’.
A sound that is not heard for the first time. For example, the government already allocated extra money in 2016, so that longer conversations can be held with parents with questions about the vaccines. Hans van Vliet, then program manager of the vaccination program, then said: ‘In all layers of the population, people have become more assertive and they are less likely to simply accept something from authorities or doctors. So we need to put more effort into talking to concerned parents and answering their questions properly.’
Vaccines are one of the greatest medical success stories of the past fifty years. Viruses such as polio, which used to cause paralysis or premature death, have been virtually eradicated in Western countries. The WHO estimates that vaccinations worldwide annually 4 to 5 million deaths prevention and calls vaccinations ‘one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions’.
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2023-06-29 17:51:17
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