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Research Article: Vaccine Hesitancy in Central Switzerland: Identifying and Characterizing Undervaccinated Children in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Date Published: 2023-12-05

Abstract:
Vaccinations play an important role in the prevention of potentially fatal diseases. Vaccine hesitancy has become an important problem both in the public discourse and for public health. We aimed to identify and characterize this potentially unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated group of children presenting to the pediatric emergency department (PED) of the tertiary children’s hospital in central Switzerland, a region that has anecdotally been claimed as a hotspot for vaccine hesitancy. All patients presenting to the PED (N = 20,247) between September 2018 and September 2019 were screened for their vaccination status and categorized as incomplete, unvaccinated, or fully vaccinated in a retrospective cohort study. Some 2.6% (n = 526) visits to the PED were not or incompletely vaccinated according to age, or their vaccination status was unknown. Most of the children in the cohort were not critically ill, and the minority had to be hospitalized. Undervaccinated patients were overrepresented in rural areas. Of all cohort visits, 18 (3.4%) patients received opportunistic vaccination in the PED. No cases of vaccine-preventable diseases were observed. In summary, incompletely vaccinated and unvaccinated status was less frequent than initially expected. The PED may play a role in increasing vaccination coverage by providing opportunistic vaccinations.

Introduction:
Vaccinations play a key role in the prevention of potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Preventing potentially fatal infectious diseases has been a major concern of humankind for centuries, and vaccines have proven to be the most cost-effective method [1]. Initially known as “inoculation” fighting smallpox, the general principle of creating immunity by exposure was understood in the 18th century. However, concerns about vaccines have existed since their first use [2]. Prior to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,…

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