Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / Europe

Anti-vaccine movement now causing serious problem in developing economies

By Harvey Morris | China Daily Global | Updated: 2019-12-10 10:45
Share
Share - WeChat

Almost 5,000 people have been struck by a measles outbreak in the small Pacific island nation of Samoa, where authorities have declared a state of emergency, imposed compulsory inoculation and arrested an anti-vaccination campaigner.

As the death toll in Samoa rose to 70, with most of the victims children, the World Health Organization issued new estimates showing that measles deaths worldwide rose to 140,000 in 2018.

How did an infectious disease that was on the way to global eradication resurface as a health emergency?

The WHO and other international agencies blame stagnating rates of child vaccination, a trend driven by anti-vaccine propagandists persuading a growing number of parents that the treatment is unsafe.

"The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective failure to protect the world's most vulnerable children," according to Tedros Adhanom, WHO director-general, an Ethiopian whose brother died in childhood from suspected measles.

The anti-vaccine movement was spawned on the internet in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and United States from the turn of the century. But it has now spread to areas of the developing world where it is doing the most damage.

The WHO says the most affected countries in 2018 were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine.

The anti-vaccine message has compounded an existing problem in areas of unrest and conflict where access to health systems was already disrupted.

The anti-vaccine activist arrested in Samoa was charged with campaigning against vaccines on Facebook and proposing ineffective remedies such as papaya leaf extract and vitamin C.

Elsewhere, four European countries previously declared to have eradicated the disease, the UK, Albania, the Czech Republic and Greece, this year lost their measles-free status, according to the WHO.

The initial vaccine scare was ignited in a 1998 paper by the now disgraced UK physician Andrew Wakefield, who claimed a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.

Although the claim was subsequently debunked by experts and exposed as an elaborate fraud by his peers, the vaccine conspiracy continues to thrive online alongside Wakefield's continued denials that his findings were wrong.

And in countries such as the US, where authorities have taken measures to ensure the vulnerable young are vaccinated, the movement has spread to the streets where doctors and parents have faced intimidation and threats from anti-vaccine campaigners.

The United Nations children's charity UNICEF estimates more than 20 million children a year worldwide are now missing out on the first dose of the measles vaccine even as rates of the disease in some areas tripled this year.

"The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children," according to Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. "If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike."

The US topped the table of high-income countries where the most children missed out on their first measles jab-more than 2.5 million between 2010 and 2017-followed by France and the UK.

Vaccination rates in the US are at around 91 percent compared with China, at the other end of the scale, which has a 99 percent rate of vaccination.

China historically suffered relatively high levels of measles but, despite continued isolated outbreaks, is now seen as on course toward elimination of the disease.

Elsewhere, studies have shown a variety of motives behind the phenomenon.

It turns out that not all those who choose not to inoculate their children are conspiracy theorists. In countries where measles and other preventable diseases are now relatively rare, people have become complacent about the need to protect their families.

Researchers have found that parents looking for information on vaccination online are more often than not driven to anti-vaccination websites.

A study in 2017 revealed that anti-vaccine messages were rife on the Twitter social media site, with many of the postings propagated by affluent young mothers.

The anti-vaccine trend appears to be fostered in part by a general suspicion of the wealthy pharmaceutical industry despite assurances from health professionals that any vaccine must be rigorously tested to ensure the benefits outweigh any risks.

The WHO has listed vaccine hesitancy among its 10 biggest threats to global health in 2019 and stressed the need for more trusted, credible information on vaccines.

A group of researchers from France and the UK put the situation even more starkly. They noted that all vaccines were collectively responsible for saving at least five lives every minute. If more people had their jabs, the world could avoid an estimated 1.5 million deaths annually, the equivalent of eight jumbo jets crashing every day.

Harvey Morris is a senior media consultant for China Daily UK

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久久久久国产精品免费免费男同| 日韩视频在线观看一区二区| 国产区在线视频| 中文无线乱码二三四区| 樱桃视频高清免费观看在线播放| 男人添女人下部全视频| 大陆老太交xxxxⅹhd| 中文字幕三级在线不卡| 日本艳鉧动漫1~6全集在线播放| 人妻少妇无码精品视频区| 美女的尿口无遮掩的照片| 国产精品黄页在线播放免费 | 精品国产麻豆免费人成网站| 国产成人精品一区二三区在线观看 | 国产一区二区三区不卡免费观看 | 国产微拍精品一区| 69xxxx日本| 国产精品自在线拍国产手机版 | 国产精品久久久久久福利| 97超级碰碰碰碰久久久久| 女人高潮内射99精品| 中文字幕人妻偷伦在线视频| 日本亚洲色大成网站www久久| 免费观看一级毛片| 色三级大全高清视频在线观看| 女人扒开下面让男人桶爽视频| 久久精品国产一区二区三区不卡| 波多野42部无码喷潮在线| 伊人色在线视频| 国产精品网址在线观看你懂的| 91香蕉视频污在线观看| 香蕉在线精品一区二区| 好吊色永久免费视频大全| 黑巨人与欧美精品一区| 色欲精品国产一区二区三区AV| 丁香婷婷六月天| 欧美老妇bbbwwbbww| 伊人久久精品无码AV一区| 综合图区亚洲欧美另类小说| 国产狂喷潮在线观看| mm1313亚洲精品无码又大又粗|