Vaccination Are children under-vaccinated?

Experts versus parents: are children vaccinated too little? Many parents critically evaluate vaccinations

09/02/2011

Increasingly urgent, vaccine-critical parents have recently been called on to vaccinate their children. After health institutions such as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) already criticized the lack of vaccination prepared by the Germans as part of the seasonal flu epidemic, they now give in and criticize a generally too hesitant attitude of the parents towards vaccinations.

The goal of eliminating measles and rubella in Europe by 2010, which was proclaimed by the World Health Organization (WHO), was not achieved due to the lack of vaccine readiness and therefore postponed to 2015, said Ole Wichmann from the Robert Koch Institute. So far, too little is being vaccinated against infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough (pertussis) and hepatitis B, added Reinhard Burger, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). But not only many parents but also a number of vaccine-critical physicians have their problems with the comprehensive calls of the health authorities to the various vaccinations.

Improving vaccination rates - parents often skeptical
At the initiative of the health ministers of the federal states, the experts gathered for the second national vaccination conference in Stuttgart and underlined their demand for an improvement in the vaccination quota. While vaccination rates among first graders are steadily rising, further improvements are needed, according to the RKI president. In particular with vaccinations for children there is a need for improvement, explained Burger. It is still not vaccinated enough against hepatitis B, whooping cough (pertussis), measles, mumps and rubella, said the RKI president. In addition, often vaccinated too late and the vaccine protection is overall often patchy, so Burger on. Therefore, plays in the desired improvement in the vaccination rate, according to the spokesman of the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), Peter Lang, the information and education of parents a major role. Many parents still have considerable reservations about vaccinating. For example, a representative survey of around 3,000 parents of children up to the age of 13 found that around 35 percent of parents are rather critical of vaccination. Almost half of the interviewed parents consider vaccinations unnecessary, said Peter Lang. Numerous parents are regular immunization opponents, according to a specialist.

Vaccinations also to protect against cancer?
The RKI President believes that it is not only necessary to have common vaccination targets, but also to clearly identify those responsible for implementation. The Vaccination Recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission of the RKI are not sufficient as professional recommendations without legal liability at this point, explained Burger. Harald zur Hausen, an expert at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, added that vaccinations can also play a major role in the prevention of cancer. For example, immunizations against the human papilloma papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B would provide a prevention against the specific cancer of the cervix cancer, so the expert of the DKFZ. Cervical cancer, with around 500,000 new cases annually, is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. A large proportion (about 83 percent) of them occur in developing countries, where, according to the expert, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B could significantly reduce the number of new cases. According to Harald zur Hausen, around 6,000 women a year contract cervical cancer in Germany.

Doubts about the effectiveness of vaccinations
However, the far-reaching demands to vaccinate their little ones make many parents skeptical. They ask first and foremost about the actual benefits of vaccination for their children. And here, the health authorities have found no convincing arguments for the critical parents. Because objective, comparative studies between vaccinated and unvaccinated children are still in short supply. So far, in the context of registration studies only the formation of antibodies that are directed against a particular pathogen evaluated, a comparison to verify the effectiveness does not take place, so the critics of the vaccine opponents. If vaccine-critical parents are still convinced by the existing studies, they next ask themselves the question of possible negative consequences of vaccination for their children.

Fear of side effects of vaccinations
Here are primarily possible side effects of vaccinations as a reason to mention that parents may not vaccinate their children. Although side effects in the current vaccines are relatively rare, but in individual cases, they can bring serious health problems, so that many parents shy away from a corresponding immunization. The fact that, for example, in 2009, the extensive call for vaccination against swine flu in some cases also caused adults considerable side effects from the vaccine used, has strengthened many parents in their rather vaccine-critical attitude. The public's trust in health institutions such as the RKI Standing Vaccine Commission or the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), which is responsible for approving vaccines, has been clearly shaken by the apparently hasty call for comprehensive vaccination against the H1N1 pathogens. It seems only understandable that vaccine-critical parents also have reservations about the current calls to improve the vaccination rate for measles, rubella and Co. (Fp)

Read about vaccinating:
Sleeping sickness by swine flu vaccine
Immune to flu after swine flu infection?
Swine flu is back: RKI recommends vaccination
Swine flu is no reason to panic
Facts about the swine flu

Picture: Andreas Morlok