The French are not sufficiently vaccinated, notes the Invs which draws up the first exhaustive inventory. And often parents and caregivers are neglectful.
The observation is relentless. In 2012, the vaccination coverage targets set under the public health law (95% except for influenza, 75%) were not achieved for most vaccines. This is what the Institute for Public Health Surveillance (Invs) reveals in a report (1) which, for the first time, provides an exhaustive inventory of the situation.
It made it possible to carry out a classification in four groups according to the vaccination schedule.
Honors “. For diphtheria, tetanus, polio (DTP) and pertussis, vaccination rates reach 98% in children for the primary vaccination.
Mention “insufficient”. The booster for whooping cough in adolescence, the measles-rubella-mumps (MMR) vaccine, BCG are among the insufficient but stable vaccine coverage. Added to this are the booster every ten years of DTP for adults (30% to 60%) and the HPV vaccine. Only 39% of young girls have made the three injections to protect themselves against the papillomavirus. A result linked in part to the dissuasive price of the vaccine: 120 euros per dose, 60% covered by social security and, sometimes, by mutual funds. As long as you have one.
Listen to Fançoise Weber, Director General of the Institute for Public Health Surveillance: “Respecting the vaccination schedule means protecting your health but also that of others.”
Mention “can do better”. Hepatitis B and MMR 2 nd dose belong to the group of insufficient but increasing coverage rates. The pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and the pneumococcal vaccine, which entered the schedule more recently, are in this category.
Mention “in decline”. Every year, the flu vaccine coverage rate drops. In 2011, Only 23% of French people had been vaccinated, and 49% of people at risk. A survey published a few weeks ago revealed that only one in three French people intended to be vaccinated this year. Since the H1N1 episode, the climate of mistrust towards this vaccine has continued to grow.
Measuring the vaccine population, says Invs, means verifying that the recommendations have been put into practice in the categories of target populations. On this subject, Fançoise Weber, director of the Invs, recalled that parents or relatives who are not up to date with their vaccination endangered children. Taking the example of whooping cough. 27% of women and 21% of men are up to date with this vaccination
Listen to Fançoise Weber. “Updating the immunization of parents and grandparents is very important for them (Editor’s note: babies) to protect them”.
Finally, healthcare workers are far from setting an example. If they are up to date with mandatory vaccinations, they are much less up to date with recommended vaccines. Whooping cough (11%), influenza (25%), chickenpox (26%) “Their motivation is very important, insists François Weber because they help protect the people they care for.”
Listen to Fançoise Weber. “Caregivers are particularly poorly vaccinated for certain diseases”.
Following this inventory, the Invs will issue recommendations to improve the reliability of information, particularly concerning adults for whom there is no data collection system. But one thing is certain: all diseases that are the subject of poor vaccination coverage represent a “threat”, according to François Weber. Including those who have disappeared who could, as with polio, return via countries in the East or the Middle East. “It’s a fight that is never over,” assures the director of Invs.
(1) Measuring vaccination coverage in France – Data source and current data
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