Actions for counteracting vaccine hesitancy: a deep dive into three multicentre projects conducted in Europe
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1
University of Pavia, Italy
2
University of Turin, Italy
Publication date: 2023-04-27
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A2070
ABSTRACT
Brief outline of the overall workshop: Human behaviours can influence the likelihood of infectious diseases transmission: the willingness to get vaccinated can impact population’s susceptibility to infection and affect diseases spread. Although vaccinations represent a substantial success of public health, a growing number of people are reluctant towards these measures and the World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy among the greatest threats to global health. In addition, vaccine hesitancy is particularly relevant for healthcare professionals (HCPs) who face multiple challenges in building relationships of trust with immunization programmes’ target populations. Overall, this workshop will present three multicentre projects that aim to address vaccine hesitancy and that have been developed thanks to consortia of universities, public health associations and institutions across Europe. Specific Aims and Component Parts: The first presentation will introduce the VXTrain project, funded by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and led by the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER). VXTrain’s main purposes are assessing training needs and existing courses in vaccinology, vaccine hesitancy, and behaviour change communication across European Member States and, consequently, designing a comprehensive curriculum for an e-learning course for primary care HCPs, which may then become trainers for their peers. The second presentation will delve into the “VAX-TRUST Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe” project, developed to improve the experience of HCPs and parents dealing with vaccination (funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 965280). Among the main objectives, VAX-TRUST aims to support HCPs when addressing patients’ vaccine hesitancy through the implementation of tailored interventions. Giuseppina Lo Moro (University of Turin) will guide through the development of the intervention, discussing the data gathered to lay the foundations of the intervention and the design of a common framework to be adapted across Europe. The last presentation will provide insights of the epidemiology, monitoring and modelling spoke (EPIMOD) within the INF-ACT project (Next Generation EU funding within the MUR PNRR Extended Partnership initiative on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Project no. PE00000007). The EPIMOD spoke will develop actions in a One Health perspective through combining surveillance and operational research. Key questions that the workshop will address: Overall, the workshop will address the following main questions: 1. What are the training needs of European HCPs in the field of vaccinology, vaccine hesitancy and behaviour change communication? 2. What are the potential interventions to help HCPs in addressing patients’ hesitancy? 3. How can human behaviours during epidemics be monitored and how do they impact the implementation of public health interventions such as vaccinations?