Page 41 - Petelin, Ana, et al. Eds. 2019. Zdravje otrok in mladostnikov / Health of Children and Adolescents. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo / Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
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cine hesitancy as a (public) health challenge plenarna predavanja | plenary lectures
Marko Pokorn1,2
1 University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Department of infectious diseases,
Japljeva 2, 1525 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2 University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Vrazov trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Vaccination prevents infectious disease in vaccinated persons as well as trans-
mission of contagious diseases to non-vaccinated individuals. Thus, in more
than 200 years, vaccination has significantly contributed to improved global
health and longevity. Vaccination has become the victim of its own success and
vaccine hesitancy has been included in the list of 10 global health threats by the
World Health Organisation in 2019. In Slovenia, a decline in vaccine confidence
has been observed recently, contributing to decreasing vaccination rates for
mandatory vaccines in children and exerting a detrimental effect on vaccina-
tion rates for non-mandatory vaccines in the immunization programme. Vac-
cine-hesitant parents are more likely to search for information regarding immu-
nization on the internet where considerable amount of unreliable data exist.
In order to combat vaccine hesitancy, strategies have to include multidiscipli-
nary approaches. Intense research is being done on psychological aspects of in-
dividual health-related decision-making. Large internet companies have limited
anti-vaccine contents on their servers. Some West-European countries have
increased vaccination rates through introduction of mandatory vaccination re-
quirement for school entry. Nevertheless, the primary care provider remains
the parents' most trustworthy source for vaccine-related information.
Keywords: vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, health, child
39
Marko Pokorn1,2
1 University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Department of infectious diseases,
Japljeva 2, 1525 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2 University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Vrazov trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Vaccination prevents infectious disease in vaccinated persons as well as trans-
mission of contagious diseases to non-vaccinated individuals. Thus, in more
than 200 years, vaccination has significantly contributed to improved global
health and longevity. Vaccination has become the victim of its own success and
vaccine hesitancy has been included in the list of 10 global health threats by the
World Health Organisation in 2019. In Slovenia, a decline in vaccine confidence
has been observed recently, contributing to decreasing vaccination rates for
mandatory vaccines in children and exerting a detrimental effect on vaccina-
tion rates for non-mandatory vaccines in the immunization programme. Vac-
cine-hesitant parents are more likely to search for information regarding immu-
nization on the internet where considerable amount of unreliable data exist.
In order to combat vaccine hesitancy, strategies have to include multidiscipli-
nary approaches. Intense research is being done on psychological aspects of in-
dividual health-related decision-making. Large internet companies have limited
anti-vaccine contents on their servers. Some West-European countries have
increased vaccination rates through introduction of mandatory vaccination re-
quirement for school entry. Nevertheless, the primary care provider remains
the parents' most trustworthy source for vaccine-related information.
Keywords: vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, health, child
39
