Vaccines are, as a matter of fact, one of the greatest achievements ever obtained by human kind as they were able to eliminate infective diseases that, not too far in the past, were considered life-threatening menace or, quite often, a proper sentence to death. As a result, diseases such as tetanus or polio have become such a rare occurrence that, if on one hand the overall quality of life has improved significantly, on the other hand, the awareness of the perils represented by these infections (and the role played by vaccines in defeating them) has probably dwindled.
According to a recent editorial appeared on The Lancet Infective Diseases, the combination of this lack of awareness, alongside scarce scientific education and spreading misinformationm might be among the reasons behind the growing skepticism about vaccine treatments. As vaccination rates dropped below 95%, which is considered the minimum threshold to have herd immunity that prevents the spreading of disease in unvaccinated recipients, many countries (including Italy) opted for vaccination as a mandatory requisite in order for children to be accepted in kindergardens and primary schools. This decision met strong resistence in the parents due the fear of adverse effects, regardless the abundant literature showing the rarity of these episodes and the concomitant far greater benefits. Just a few days ago, Carlo Signorelli, Stefania Iannazzo and Anna Odone published on the same journal an interesting follow up to this editorial, quoting some preliminary data -published by the italian ministry of health- about the immunization rates in Italian regions after a few months after the enforcing of the recent law.
Link to The Lancet Infective Diseases Website (Editorial)
Link to The Lancet Infective Diseases website (Correspondence)
Link to the original papers (Only for registered users)