Save the date for the symposium Why vaccinate?

After clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention in the world that saves lives and promotes good health. Vaccination protects everybody. Vaccination protects those individuals who suffer most from serious infectious diseases, such as young children and the elderly. Vaccination also protects people who cannot be vaccinated or who refuse vaccination. If more than 95% of people in a population have been vaccinated, the number of people who are susceptible to a viral or bacterial infection is so low that infections do not spread easily.

Vaccines are extremely safe, but they do not always protect a person completely: this should act as an incentive to promote research into improved vaccines. Inaccurate information on the internet and social media has persuaded more and more parents to refuse vaccination for their children. This has already resulted in measles epidemics, such as those seen in the pre-vaccination era.

On the 18th of December, AIGHD and Health[e]Foundation organize the symposium Why Vaccinate. The purpose of the symposium is to update the medical and social science community on access to vaccines; the efficacy and safety of vaccines; the latest achievements in vaccine development; and the reluctance to accept vaccines, both worldwide and in the Netherlands. The roundtable discussion will create a platform to discuss the role of vaccination in public and individual health.

When?

18 December 2018, 16:00 – 18:00

Who?

Speakers are Seth Berkeley (GAVI), Stuart Blume (UVA), Roel Coutinho (UU), Jaap van Dissel (RIVM), Jaap Goudsmit (Harvard), and Bas van den Putte (UVA), introduction by the Dean of Amsterdam UMC Hans Romijn

Where?

Amsterdam UMC, location AMC