Mandatory vaccinations for access to school: Is this the best way to tackle hesitancy?
Milan, 6th February 2017
Mandatory vaccinations for access to school: Is this the best way to tackle hesitancy?
Since immunization rates are decreasing in a worrying trend in Italy, some local and national authorities have suggested to prevent unvaccinated children from entering childcare centres or nursery schools. The proposal ignited a public debate whether this simple and quick measure can be effective: some think that we are facing an emergency that requires an adequate reaction; others fear that this strict position could be of little use, even possibly creating a backfire effect.
A new feature on ASSET website provides some clues for other kinds of practical interventions, aimed both at improving dialogue with reluctant families and at targeting health professionals who do not support, when not openly discourage, vaccination. A previous analysis by ASSET project, in fact, could not provide any evidence of a relationship between mandatory vaccination and rates of childhood immunization in the EU/EEA countries for polio, pertussis and measles, suggesting that this measure is not able by itself to guarantee a good coverage against preventable infectious diseases.
In the following maps, one for each vaccine, countries where a vaccination is mandatory has been marked with a lined background, while those where the same vaccination is recommended have a spotted background. Countries coloured in green have had an average higher vaccine coverage than the EU/EEA average (2007-2013), while the coverage is lower than the average in the blue ones.
No evident correlation between colours and different backgrounds appears from the maps.
“Low coverage in vaccinations is a complex issue, with various causes in different countries and in different population groups,” says Donato Greco, former General Director of Health Prevention at Italian Ministry of Health, WHO consultant and now working for ASSSET project. “It needs to be faced with a multifaceted strategy”.
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Roberta Villa
villa@zadig.it
+39 3398182219