Concerns about baby vaccination rate in Rotterdam, The Hague
The municipal health services in both the Rotterdam region and The Hague have raised concerns about the vaccination rate for babies in two of the Netherlands’ four largest cities. Rotterdam has the lowest vaccination rate of the large cities, and in The Hague, not a single neighborhood achieved the World Health Organization standard of 95 percent vaccinated.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a vaccination rate of 90 to 95 percent is required to protect the population against highly infectious diseases like the measles.
In the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region, 79.7 percent of babies born in 2022 received all their vaccinations in their first two years of life, Rijnmond reported based on figures from the local health service GGD. That’s slightly more than last year, but still well below the WHO standard.
In The Hague region, there is not a single neighborhood where 95 percent of babies are fully vaccinated. The coverage rate of the MMR vaccine against mumps, measles, and rubella dropped from 92.9 percent to 80.9 percent, Omroep West reported based on figures from GGD Haaglanden.
“What we’re seeing is that the vaccination rate has been declining across the region in recent years,” Timo Boelsums, an infectious disease control doctor at GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond, told the local broadcaster Rijnmond.
According to Boelsums, a vaccination rate below the critical threshold means that young, vulnerable children are at greater risk of contracting diseases like measles or whooping cough. “Another risk is that outbreaks will occur, which could cause larger groups to become ill. And people who cannot be vaccinated, such as very young babies or people with very fragile health, are then at extra risk.”
Boelsums attributes the decline in vaccination rates partly to the impact of social media. “Ghost stories circulate there that aren’t true. We’re also noticing that people are becoming less and less familiar with the infectious diseases we vaccinate against and the associated risks, and that people are trusting the government less and less.”
