Childhood Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy: A Comparison Between Türkiye and the World

Vaccination is the cheapest, safest, and most successful public health approach to protect children's health and prevent infectious diseases. High vaccination rates ensure community immunity and prevent epidemics. A drop in immunization rates below 95% can lead to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly measles, as well as increased morbidity and mortality. With the recent emergence of vaccine hesitancy (VH) and vaccine refusal (VR) concepts, especially in developed countries, the number of unvaccinated children is increasing both in our country and around the world. Vaccine hesitancy stems from many personal and environmental reasons, as well as sociocultural, environmental, economic, and political reasons. Lack of information about vaccines, fear of side effects, concerns about vaccine efficacy and safety, the idea that vaccines are harmful, anti-vaccine publications on the internet and social media, belief in natural immunity, and religious reasons are seen as the most common reasons for VH and VR in different studies. Raising awareness in society about the importance and necessity of vaccination, identifying the factors that lead to VH, and producing solutions are among the primary measures to be taken. Healthcare personnel play a very important role in the fight against vaccine hesitancy. It is important to establish good, effective, and trusting communication with vaccine-hesitant parents. Recently, in addition to vaccine refusal cases, the number of families refusing vitamin K and heel blood sampling has been increasing. Vaccine refusal, and refusal of health care services will increase neonatal and childhood morbidity and mortality. Legal measures should be taken to protect the best interests of the child. Valid and reliable scales that evaluate parents' vaccine acceptance and hesitancy will be a source of information in the fight against vaccine hesitancy.