Anti-Vaccination

Vaccination campaign against smallpox, causing the death of millions of people, has made great progress since the 1700s. The prevalence, morbidity and mortality rates of many diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, measles, rubella, rabies and tetanus have dramatically decreased through widespread vaccination programs. Vaccine production technology has also advanced considerably over the past two centuries. One billion doses of vaccine are administered each year and the vast majority of it is administered to healthy individuals worldwide. The most stringent measures in terms of design, monitoring and compliance are taken to produce vaccines. Anti-vaccination movement is as old as vaccines themselves. Through organizations, books, leaflets and magazines, anti-vaccination activists disseminated their anti-vaccine arguments leading to serious reductions in vaccination rates. Unfortunately, in times and geographies where they were successful, people suffered from serious epidemics. Interestingly, anti-vaccination discourses similar to those in the past are still prevalent in the 21st century. Due to vaccination, some infectious diseases have become rare, which has led to the emergence of anti-vaccination arguments that claim that vaccines are unnecessary. There has been speculation that vaccine manufacturers have made a huge profit prompting them to control universal vaccination programs, and that side effects of vaccines have been covered up. Allegations have been made that the combination of measles-rubella-mumps vaccines or the use of thiomersal containing ethylmercury as a preservative in some vaccines causes autism. Vaccines have been associated with autoimmune diseases and termination of vaccination programs has been demanded. Although hundreds of studies have been conducted to debunk the allegations and medical authorities have concluded that vaccines are both necessary and safe, opponents of vaccination continue to use current technologies, such as the internet and social media, to influence people’s reliance on vaccination. The success of vaccination strategies depends on people’s perceptions of the benefits or risks of vaccines and on their reliance on vaccination. Another important step in the success of vaccination programs is providing health workers with adequate information on vaccines and anti-vaccination, and informing them how to approach parents who hesitate to vaccinate their children.