“Helping each citizen to find reliable information to protect themselves, protect those around them through vaccination”. This is the objective of the “Immuniser Lyon” campaign, a public health campaign aimed at promoting vaccination.
Set up by the city of Lyon in partnership with around twenty public players, this operation should last until May 2016. This is a first in France and in Europe in terms of public health and prevention. Stated objective: to allow residents of Lyon and health professionals to take stock of their vaccinations and facilitate access to information and vaccination. A timely initiative at a time when the Petition from Dr Merry on the vaccine against DT-Polio raises the debate on the need to be vaccinated against infectious diseases.
Specifically, a site http://www.immuniser-lyon.org/ provides the general public with tools for carrying out a vaccination check-up and learning about the prevention of infectious diseases such as cholera, whooping cough, dengue fever, diphtheria, etc.
Health centers and self-employed health professionals also take part in this campaign by distributing more than 60,000 posters and leaflets.
Through this activism, the mayor of Lyon Gérard Collomb intends to restore a climate of trust around vaccines. “There is a certain climate of public distrust of vaccines. This results in a decline in vaccination. We therefore want the information to be transparent and restore a climate of trust”, he explained to Métro. “At the end, we will try to measure the impact that this campaign may have had on people, see if the number of vaccinations has increased”, specifies Anne-Sophie Ronnaux-Baron, president of the steering committee of ‘Immuniser Lyon’, to Metro.
If the initiative bears fruit, it is a safe bet that it will spread to other French cities.
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