Perspective: Preventable diseasesMeasles Epidemic: Parents Reluctant to Vaccinate Their Children Need to Hear of the Horrors of Forgotten Diseases
There’s been a surge in measles cases across Europe, putting people’s lives at risk according to new findings from the World Health Organization. This has in part been put down to disinformation about the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine on social media putting parents off vaccinating their children. Why are people reluctant to have screening tests and vaccinations to prevent diseases? Sarah Pitt writes in The Conversation that while some of the reasons may include loss of trust in “experts” and people in authority, I wonder if it is also partly because the stories of such diseases have been long forgotten. “Gruesome photos on cigarette packages, for example, massively help to reduce tobacco use, so maybe something similar now needs to happen in terms of vaccinations to tackle the latest epidemic and anti-vaxxer campaigns around the world,” she writes.
There’s been a surge in measles cases across Europe, putting people’s lives at risk according to new findings from the World Health Organization.
The official figures show that approximately 90,000 cases have been reported for the first half of 2019. This is already more than the number of cases recorded for the whole of 2018 (84,462).
This has in part been put down to disinformation about the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine on social media putting parents off vaccinating their children.
Recent outbreaks of measles, which is much more infectious than mumps and rubella, have been widely reported. But what is less well known is that there have been a few babies born with congenital rubella syndrome in the U.K. in the past few years. This is an illness resulting from an infection of the rubella virus during pregnancy.
Why are people reluctant to have screening tests and vaccinations to prevent diseases? Sarah Pitt writes in The Conversation that while some of the reasons may include loss of trust in “experts” and people in authority, I wonder if it is also partly because the stories of such diseases have been long forgotten.
She adds:
In the 20th-century, there were major advances in disease prevention, which improved both life expectancy and quality of life. But it seems these health and societal developments are now being overlooked. Indeed, giving people information and instructions is no longer working. So perhaps it’s time to appeal to people’s hearts by telling the stories of these diseases – and how they have affected real people.
Gruesome photos on cigarette packages, for example, massively help to reduce tobacco use, so maybe something similar now needs to happen in terms of vaccinations to tackle the latest epidemic and anti-vaxxer campaigns around the world.
