Part of European Immunisation Week 2017, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Health has launched an awareness campaign aimed at 

Vaccination is widely recognised as one of the most effective and least costly of health interventions, which has led to considerable overall improvements in health and life expectancy across the world. Yet today, almost 20 million children in the world are still not vaccinated or are insufficiently vaccinated.

Among its major victories, smallpox has been eradicated from the planet. Poliomyelitis has disappeared from Western Europe, and several diseases, such as diphtheria and tetanus, have virtually disappeared from Luxembourg. 

However, other diseases for which there is a vaccine, such as measles, rubella and mumps, are still raging. 

"To continue protecting themselves from these diseases and to prevent them from re-emerging, it is important to get vaccinated and keep vaccination coverage at a high level," said Health Minister Lydia Mutsch.

In Luxembourg, vaccination coverage of resident children is assessed every five years through a representative national immunisation survey of children aged 25-30 months. 

Although the results have always been very good - which proves that the vast majority of parents trust the national immunisation programme - it is important to remain vigilant 

The vaccination coverage of RORV (measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox) should be maintained at more than 95% of children vaccinated with two doses of vaccine, in order to have a chance of interrupting the circulation of the virus and hope to eliminate measles and rubella from our regions — in order to maintain the so-called “herd effect” of protection, which is particularly important for those who cannot take vaccinations, or whose immune systems are suppressed. 

Maintaining high immunisation coverage is also important to prevent the spread of infectious diseases imported from other countries where these diseases are not yet eradicated. 

Many adolescents, adults and those at risk are not sufficiently informed about the diseases that threaten their health and the vaccines they need to be protected on a long-term basis. The emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases among health professionals is of particular concern, as infections can spread among the most vulnerable patients.

As part of the European Immunisation Week, the Ministry of Health launched an information and awareness campaign to highlight the importance of immunisation at all stages of life.

The ministry also aims to combat prejudices and false information aimed at sabotaging confidence in this essential tool of prevention, by means of an expanded posting of posters and leaflets to doctors, hospitals, crèches, communes, pharmacies, schools and lycées.

 

The Ministry of Health has developed several educational tools to inform and educate the population about the importance of vaccinations, which can be downloaded from the health portal: www.sante.lu.