Top 10 threats to global health this year: WHO 08/11/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: Air pollution and climate change, Antimicrobial Resistance, Dengue, Ebola and other high-threat pathogens, Fragile and vulnerable settings, Global influenza pandemic, HIV, Noncommunicable diseases, Vaccine hesitancy, Weak primary health care
Vaccine hesitancy
For: Mains
Topics covered:
- Top 10 threats to global health this year released by WHO
- About Vaccine Hesitancy
- What is vaccination?
News Flash
In January 2019, the WHO (World Health Organization) listed “vaccine hesitancy” as among the top 10 threats to global health this year. Vaccine hesitancy has been a concern in India.
Vaccine Hesitancy
- It is defined as a “reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines”.
- The repercussions of vaccine hesitance are now playing out globally — as on October 10, 2019, nearly 4,24,000 children have confirmed measles, as against a figure of 1,73,000 in the whole of 2018.
Vaccination
- According to WHO, vaccination prevents between two-three million deaths each year. This figure will be rise by another 1.5 million if vaccine coverage improves.
- In a survey of over 1,40,000 people from 140 countries has revealed the striking difference in how people trust vaccines.
- At 95%, people from South Asia trusted vaccines followed by eastern Africa at 92%.
- Western Europe and eastern Europe brought up the rear with just 59% and 52%, respectively.
The Indian perspective
- Vaccine hesitancy has been a concern in India.
- Peoples have misconceptions that the vaccine caused illness.
- Muslim peoples skip from taking the vaccination as they think that vaccines may contain microbes, chemicals, and animal-derived products which is forbidden by Islamic law.
- One of the big reasons is fear, spread through social media, of adverse effects from vaccination.
- It is also found that nearly a quarter of parents did not vaccinate their children out of a fear of adverse events.
- Another reason found is the cultural influence.
- Falsely blaming vaccines for unrelated diseases is the bedrock of the anti-vaccination movement across the globe, India included.
Good defence
- Several studies have shown that the vaccination can reduce the risk of illness by 40-60% when there is a good match between the strains used in the vaccine and the circulating virus.
- It is proven that vaccination offers the best defence against illness and its potentially serious consequences, hospitalisations and even deaths.
Ten threats to global health in 2019 by WHO
- Air pollution and climate change
- Noncommunicable diseases
- Global influenza pandemic
- Fragile and vulnerable settings
- Antimicrobial resistance
- Ebola and other high-threat pathogens
- Weak primary health care
- Vaccine hesitancy
- Dengue
- HIV
Source: The Hindu
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