For 48 per cent of Europeans, getting vaccinated can often lead to serious side effects while 38 per cent think they can cause the diseases they protect against. This was revealed by the first Eurobarometer on attitudes towards vaccines. Beliefs that must be dispelled according to Rocco Russo, coordinator of the technical table on vaccinations of the Italian Society of Pediatrics and pediatrician in the Asl di Benevento who spoke at the 76th Italian Congress of Pediatrics underway in Rome until May 28, speaking at the round table “Training , communication in paediatrics: which methods and which tools “.
“We know that infectious diseases in the twentieth century have had a net increase linked to many factors ranging from international travel to temporal changes – underlined Russo – but fortunately we have also had a clear reduction in these infectious diseases and this is linked to as many factors including vaccinations. Numerous scientific evidences have shown that thanks to vaccinations 4 million cases have been avoided in our country from the 1900s to 2015 as well as many deaths “.
Vaccinations unfortunately are victims of their own success and one of the critical issues that is raised regarding the vaccination process is vaccination hesitation. A very important problem, so much so that the World Health Organization itself considers it among the 10 threats to global health.
“Anti-vaccination movements have always existed since vaccinations were born, but if these hesitations could be understood by those who lived in 1892 because then they did not have scientific evidence to support their thesis, today it is not acceptable in the light of new evidence “.
“We know that we are confronted with various levels of awareness of the parent’s management of vaccinations – explained Russo – we have those in favor (70%) who have a high confidence in vaccination health services, the uncertain (25%) and those against ( 5%) who totally reject vaccines. As pediatricians, you need to pay close attention to the mechanisms underlying communication with parents. In fact, a European study has shown that parents who have doubts about vaccinations are inclined to contact their general practitioner or pediatrician. Evidence that we have a role of fundamental importance, also highlighted in another survey made on 3,130 questionnaires where it clearly emerges that the main factors associated with the condition of hesitation were related to parents who had not received a full recommendation from the pediatrician to vaccinate son. As pediatricians we have the task of knowing the parents’ point of view, we must be aware of their perplexities and not abandon the skeptics but rather try to leave a door open for these subjects to become aware of vaccination. We must be able to generate easy and simple messages, we must not scare the parent, but strengthen the ability to draw the attention of those who are perplexed about the consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases ”.
“As an Italian Society of Pediatrics – said Russo – we have implemented awareness campaigns to make parents understand the difference between the vaccination obligation for access to school and the value of vaccination as a national vaccine plan. To do this, however, we need to know the topic of vaccines clearly and therefore we must be adequately informed and updated on the evolution in the vaccination field. And above all we must have a vaccination system that is well structured and that can guarantee an active offer of vaccinations ”.