Doctors in Cyprus anxiously report the return of those diseases from which mankind has learned to defend themselves decades ago. The reason is the decline in vaccination coverage. What happens with confidence in vaccinations and why does this jeopardize the health of millions?
Reducing coverage and causes of resistance
Pediatricians in Cyprus note a reduction in the level of vaccination of children. It is with this that they associate the return of measles and meningitis. “In general, we are still at a very good level, but a number of factors led to a decrease in the coverage of children in Cyprus,” said the chairman of the Cyprus Pediatric Society, Mikhalis Anastasiadis on the occasion of the World Wide Week on April 24-30.
The doctor notes that the pediatricians in Cyprus are faced with great resistance from the parents who are wary of vaccination of their children. “This is not exclusively a Cyprus phenomenon, but we note that the share of such parents is growing in Cyprus,” the doctor informed.
He connects this with the Pandemia period, when a number of fears were expressed to the vaccines from coronavirus. Many children remained unenviable. At the same time, over the past two years, outbreaks of other infections have been, and some children had to postpone vaccination.
Numbers, achievements and threats
In his appeal on the occasion of the World Immunization Week, the WHO calls the invention of vaccines "one of the greatest achievements of mankind." Over the past 50 years, vaccines saved 154 million lives. Over these 50 years, the vaccination contribution to improving the survival indicators of infants was 40%. Today more children live up to their first year after birth than ever in the history of mankind. Only the use of measles vaccine made it possible to preserve 60% of children's lives saved through immunization. Today, there are vaccines from 30 diseases that are life -threatening.
“However, a turning point has come in the history of world health care. With difficulty won successes in eradicating vaccine diseases were threatened. For decades, these successes have been achieved by the joint efforts of governments, humanitarian institutions, scientists, doctors and parents, due to which natural smallpox was eliminated in today's world and polio was almost eliminated, ”the appeal said.
Modern challenges and prospects
Today, the number of measles measures is growing every year, starting from 2021. Over the past 12 months of 138 countries, 138 countries reported repeated cases of this disease, in 61 of them large -scale epidemics occurred. This is the highest rate since 2019. In 2024, cases of meningitis and yellow fever also increased sharply in Africa.
In the future, immunization should not only cover millions of children who have not received a single dose of the vaccine, but also protect the older generation from influenza, infants from malaria and respiratory syncetial virus, pregnant from tetanus, and young girls from the human papillomavirus.
The World Immunization Week is held in the last week of April and combines efforts to support the use of vaccines for the prevention of diseases among people of any age.
The text is prepared based on the materials "Filelefteros".
