A report on the status of vaccination in Europe
In: Sheikh , S , Biundo , E , Courcier , S , Damm , O , Launay , O , Maes , E , Marcos , C , Matthews , S , Meijer , C , Poscia , A , Postma , M , Saka , O , Szucs , T & Begg , N 2018 , ' A report on the status of vaccination in Europe ' , Vaccine , vol. 36 , no. 33 , pp. 4979-4992 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.06.044 ; ISSN:0264-410X
Vaccine policy, decision processes and outcomes vary widely across Europe. The objective was to map these factors across 16 European countries by assessing (A) national vaccination strategy and implementation, (B) attributes of healthcare vaccination systems, and (C) outcomes of universal mass vaccination (UMV) as a measure of how successful the vaccination policy is.These findings reflect an individual approach to vaccination by country. High VCRs can be achieved, particularly for paediatric vaccinations, despite different approaches, targets and reporting systems; these are not replicated in vaccines for other age groups in the same country. Additional measures to improve VCRs across all age groups are needed and could benefit from greater harmonisation in target setting, vaccination data collection and sharing across EU countries.