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Statistically, only three or four out of a hundred Poles are vaccinated against the flu. Why? The answer is surprising: – Doctors do not recommend vaccinations – says Dr. Tadeusz Zielonka from the Medical University of Warsaw.
Halina Pilonis, Medonet: 3,4 percent of Poles were vaccinated against flu last year. How do we compare with other European countries?
Dr. Tadeusz Zielonka: Too bad. In the UK, 78 percent of the population is vaccinated against influenza, 76 percent in the Netherlands, over 70 percent in France and Italy. Residents of these countries do it regularly every year, thanks to which they have immunity to various subtypes of the virus. This is the most effective barrier against an epidemic.
Why do we prefer not to vaccinate?
Patients, when asked why they do not do it, most often reply: “because my doctor did not recommend it to me”. It follows that the role of the doctor in the reluctance of Poles to vaccinate is crucial.
Doctors themselves also avoid vaccinations. Only 6–8 percent of them choose to do so. Why?
I think, first of all, because of the lack of time to take preventive measures. Secondly, Polish medics are under-educated in this field, but not because they don’t want to learn.
Is it also a matter of lack of time?
Yes. When a German doctor reads the latest scientific reports, Polish works on the next shift in the hospital or until the night on the second or third job. Due to staff shortages, Polish medics work the longest in Europe. They constantly have to give up on something, often it is following modern medical knowledge. They often know as much about vaccination as they have learned in college, sometimes many years ago. And, as little was said about adult immunization, either during college or postgraduate training, sometimes even medical professors do not know the facts. Recently, I had a lecture for pulmonologists and some people were surprised by the information that, according to the guidelines of the Minister of Health included in the Polish vaccination calendar, they are obliged to recommend influenza vaccination in patients suffering from asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and any doctor who not doing – according to the act on infectious diseases – is punishable by a fine.
Perhaps first we should convince the doctors to start vaccinating themselves? Because then they will not discourage their patients from doing so.
In my hospital, when I started promoting the idea of influenza vaccination 6 years ago, only 3 percent of the staff got vaccinated. I asked my colleagues why they didn’t do it. Most replied that there was no time. So I started vaccinating them in the hospital, on the ward. Today, 80 percent of doctors are vaccinated. Always the same for six years. I can’t convince the other 20 percent.
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Who is in the 20 percent reluctant to vaccinate?
Interestingly, among them there are, for example, those who smoke cigarettes. They know it is harmful, but their mental structure prevents them from giving up their addiction and taking preventive measures. I noticed that our knowledge only partially influences our behavior.
Poles do not trust vaccines in general, do they?
There are hard facts, or scientific evidence, that speak for the effectiveness of vaccines. However, we still prefer myths over facts. For example, we trust dietary supplements that have no proven effect or are even proven not to work, and we are afraid to use effective drugs with proven action. It’s playing with fire. Dangerous epidemics, although they do not happen often, in the perspective of decades, there will be ones that kill millions of people.
We may be discouraged by the fact that we need to get vaccinated for the flu every year. There are many viral diseases that can be treated once in a lifetime, or wounds for several years.
This is the specificity and terrifying power of influenza viruses that they are able to change constantly. The same virus has several types, many subtypes and, in addition, it can change every year. Medicine constantly monitors these changes and tries to prepare an effective vaccine every year.
Or maybe Poles are simply not afraid of influenza?
Poles are not aware that flu is not only high fever, runny nose and cough. It is a lethal pneumonia or a cardiac or neurological complication. They also do not know that this disease exacerbates many diseases they suffer from, that it is sometimes the cause of hospitalization and deaths. They have a heart attack and do not realize that they might have avoided it if they had had their vaccinations. There are known results of large-scale studies, among 170 thousand. patients who show that influenza vaccinated COPD patients are less likely to have severe disease flares.
Can we protect ourselves against a flu epidemic?
Not. Nobody will suddenly provide us with vaccines for all the inhabitants of the country when a dangerous epidemic breaks out, because the cycle of launching additional production takes about 2 years. Each country will then stock vaccines for its citizens. If we wanted to increase the vaccination coverage to, say, 20 percent today, we would have to order 5 times more vaccines. No pharmaceutical company will fulfill such an increased order in a year. Meanwhile, according to WHO guidelines, we need to vaccinate at 75 percent, which some European countries have already achieved or are very close to. We are also unable to secure the right amount of drugs in the event of an epidemic, because even the richest country cannot stockpile drugs with such a short shelf life for all its inhabitants. Meanwhile, should an epidemic break out, they will be worth their weight in gold.
Are the vaccines available in Poland effective?
How successful the vaccine is depends on the testing of viruses that occur in a given season. WHO collects information from all countries about the viruses present in their area and on this basis develops a vaccine for a given year.
Due to a lack of time, primary care physicians often prefer to record that a patient has a cold rather than the flu, as they do not have to report it. Hospitals do not always test for flu when a patient comes with pneumonia, which may be a complication of it.
Poland is known not only for not vaccinating, but also for not conducting extensive research on the viruses present in the Polish population. Meanwhile, what information will come from Poland will indirectly affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Therefore, distorted, overly optimistic data will flow from our country. What’s the truth?
In the last 2015/2016 flu season, only over 8,5 thousand entries were sent. flu samples. Meanwhile, the data of the National Institute of Public Health-PZH in Warsaw show that in the 2015/2016 flu season there were over 4 million cases of flu and suspected cases of this infection. Over 16,1 thousand people required hospitalization for this reason, and 140 patients died.
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