EXAMINATION OF THE PREVALENCE OF VACCINE-PREVENTABLE PATHOGENS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS VACCINATIONS
Huber Annamária
Patológiai és Onkológiai Tagozat
Dr. Matolcsy András
SE Orálbiológiai Tanszék Könyvtára
2025-11-14 11:00:00
Mikroorganizmusok és anyagaik hatásainak molekuláris, celluláris és organizmus szintű vizsgálata
Dr. Szabó Dóra
Dr. Dobay Orsoly Dr. Horváth Andrea
Dr. Burián Katalin
Dr. Kenesei Éva
Dr. Kellermayer Miklós
Dr. Szabó Judit
Dr. Bősze Szilvia
During our research the main goal was gaining knowledge and information that can support the protection of children from different infectious diseases.
Our studies provide important data on parental attitudes towards varicella vaccination and meningococcal vaccination. Healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards varicella vaccination also provide unique information that can be used by public health policy makers. The introduction of publicly funded vaccines would most likely increase vaccine uptake as we found both in case of varicella and meningococcus that with financial status vaccination rate reduces.
We also found in both cases that healthcare professionals have an unquestionable role in parents’ vaccination decisions, so they need stable ground knowledge regarding vaccine safety, efficacy, and risk-benefit ratios. Having and providing reliable information for parents is not enough, the way of communication also has an important role when it comes to vaccination. Continuous education should also cover these topics supplemented with newest result to have up-to-date information to provide help with vaccination decisions for parents.
Another finding that needs to be highlighted is that parents do not have sufficient knowledge about the infections their offspring may face during childhood or young adulthood. Public awareness campaigns focusing on disease severity and vaccine efficacy could eliminate misinformation and mistrust.
Our carriage study is the first to provide information about the amount and type of nasopharyngeal meningococcal colonization in adolescents and young adults in Hungary and the potential risk factors associated with carriage. Since this age group is one of the risk groups for IMD, it is important to know the epidemiological status of carriage and the currently circulating serogroups. These data can help public health authorities to make vaccine related decisions, moreover, this is a good source for healthcare professionals to gain more information before vaccine recommendation for parents. As we found high carriage rate among Hungarian young adults, the recommendation of broad-spectrum meningococcal vaccination would be practical in this age group.
