24 apr 2024 om 14:46 Update: 15 uur geleden
Vaccinations against diseases such as measles, whooping cough and tuberculosis have saved 154 million lives in the past fifty years. This is evident from an analysis published on Wednesday by UNICEF and the World Health Organization WHO, among others. Measles vaccination in particular has proven to be effective.
The analysis was made for the fiftieth anniversary of the WHO’s routine vaccination program EPI. Vaccinating against measles has resulted in almost 94 million fewer deaths. In addition, thanks to the routine vaccination program, child mortality has fallen by 40 percent since 1974. This can be concluded from the research data, which have been published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
According to Suzanne Laszlo, director of UNICEF Netherlands, the results underline the importance of vaccinations. Yet there are concerns.
For example, Laszlo sees that there has been “an increasing distrust in science” among people, resulting in a decline in confidence in vaccines. “We must continue to invest structurally in combating disinformation and providing the right information to maintain confidence in vaccinations,” she says.
Laszlo therefore wants research into the causes of doubts about vaccinations among people. The director of UNICEF Netherlands sees an important role for health workers in this. “Invest sufficiently in that too.”
On Tuesday, outgoing Minister Pia Dijkstra (Medical Care) urgently advised parents to have their child vaccinated against measles. “Measles is not an innocent disease,” she wrote in a letter to Parliament. Earlier in the day, the RIVM’s Outbreak Management Team (OMT) called on the government to take additional measures now that the number of infections is increasing.
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