In recent years, there has been a trend of decreasing regular vaccination of children in our country. The profession warns and considers vaccines crucial in preventing the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, while parents fear and oppose. Experts urge parents to be encouraged and educated about the importance of immunization.
A two-and-a-half-month-old baby died recently in Mostar due to whooping cough. Despite all the doctors’ efforts, even though she had other health problems, they could not help because she had not been vaccinated.
“A typical example of this is the vaccine that has been in use since 1950 against whooping cough, a disease that was dominant in our fields and that caused the greatest number of deaths, but thanks to the vaccine, the invention of antibiotics – that disease was brought under control” , says Eniz Čolaković, director of the Public Health Institute of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences.
Doctors state that an insufficient number of vaccinated children can lead to an epidemic, a large number of complications, severe disability, and the death of a child.
“When a disease appears – specifically, now whooping cough – that’s when parents look for vaccines and then they start to trust the profession. Unfortunately, these are the last moments that should not be allowed absolutely,” warns Elvira Duraković-Bahador, a pediatrician at the Vogošća Health Center.
The Institute for Public Health of the FBiH points out that vaccination is the best measure by which parents can protect their children from infectious diseases. They remind that the diseases against which children are vaccinated are tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, diseases caused by hemophilus influenza type b, measles, rubella and parotitis.
“Today, we rarely encounter these diseases because we are protected by vaccines. By delaying or refusing vaccination, children are exposed to the risk of contracting these diseases, which can cause serious consequences. If your child missed a vaccination, ask the health center today about ways to get a follow-up vaccination,” they note.
In our country, but also globally, the anti-vaxxer trend has resulted in parents distrusting children’s immunization. Doctors say that wrong information is easily available through social networks. Parents should seek information from health professionals. Science has not yet been able to prove that the vaccine results in the appearance of autistic forms of behavior in children, as many parents think, says pediatrician Duraković-Bahador: “It is precisely by refusing the vaccine out of fear and mistrust that we reach the moment when we will now have the reappearance of these diseases that cause children also get vaccinated”.
“We have the largest number of vaccinated children while they are still children, after the birth of the mother, and that is while the child is in the maternity hospital – over 92% of vaccinated children. In the second month, according to the data we have, approximately 90% of children were vaccinated. The second dose is given in the fourth month, and that’s when we drop to 87%. Then, in the sixth month – we have a drop to 73%, and in the second year the drop is somewhere around 42%”, states Čolaković.
The vaccine is legally mandatory in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Law on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases of the FBiH, Article 40, prescribes that parents, if they refuse to vaccinate their child, are fined up to two thousand marks.
