The trend of non-vaccinating the children which has been noticed in the past 5 to 6 years in Croatia, continued in 2017. Due to the continuous drop in the number of vaccinated children, the epidemiologists of the Croatian Institute for Public Health warn that the level of collective immunity is seriously compromised, especially among pre-school children in Croatia – Novi List reports.

Their warning is worrying and leaves no room for doubt: if the non-vaccination trend is not urgently stopped, in the near future we can expect epidemics of measles, rubles, whooping cough and mumps, roughly in that order.

According to the Croatian Institute for Public Health report for 2017, there was a drop in the percentage of vaccinated children, which has been noticed in the last six years.The largest drop occurred in vaccination in the second year of life, when children under the vaccination schedule receive the primary vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MPR).

Despite this trend, school children, Croatian Institute for Public Health reports, are still well protected from measles, rubles and mumps. However, in pre-school children from year to year, the share of susceptible persons is increasing, which is a real danger of epidemic outbreaks, especially in these counties - Dubrovnik-Neretva, Split-Dalmatia, Primorsko-Goranska i Osjecko-Baranjska.

There are also differences within the county, so in the Split-Dalmatia County there is a big difference between 53 percent of vaccinated children in Hvar or 100 percent vaccinated in Vis. Also, there is difererence in Dubrovnik-Neretva County between 40.8 percent vaccinated in Dubrovnik and 80.5 percent in Metković . In Rijeka, 78.3 percent of children were vaccinated against measles, less than a year earlier, 78 percent in Split, and 80.7 percent in Osijek.

Vaccinations in primary school are generally at an acceptable high level, and the only vaccination that does not show a noticeable decline in Croatia is BCG that is being carried out at nursing homes.