Preventive medicine

Greece comes second behind Slovenia on the list of European Union countries where citizens have a growing amount of confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccinations, a recent report by the European Commission has shown.

Greece has one of Europe's lowest vaccination rates, according to a new study published by the European Commission which also found that immunity to measles has been dropping since 2010.

The Panhellenic Pharmacists' Association (PFS) has expressed concern over what it described as an "ambiguous" circular issued by the Ministry of Education with regard to child vaccinations.

If the anti-vaccination trend gains pace, this may produce serious consequences, including an epidemic, warns Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ceyhan, a member of the immunization advisory board of the Health Ministry.

The number of families in Turkey who say they are against vaccination rose to 23,000 in 2017, up from just 183 in 2011, according to the head of the Turkish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 

Only six out in 10 Greeks believe in the effectiveness of vaccinations in combating the spread of infectious diseases, while three in 10 suspect that the risks of side effects are equal to or greater than the benefits, researchers have found.

Turkey's Ministry of Health, with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), is conducting a campaign to complete the vaccination of all refugee children under the age of five. 

Children are being vaccinated in all of the country's 81 provinces by staff from the ministry between Feb. 15 and Feb. 28.

A mother in Oreokastro claims that she voted against blocking refugee children from attending school. Proving that not everyone in town stands behind the two parents associations that have issued statements saying that they will not accept the migrant and refugee children living in the area in their schools, she posted on her Facebook page that the decision is not unanimous.

Romania's Health Ministry is working on a draft project to ban unvaccinated children from attending nurseries, kindergartens or schools. Under the plan, parents could also be fined if they do not vaccinate their children.