What is the importance of vaccine hesitancy in the drop of vaccination coverage in Brazil?

ABSTRACT The successful Programa Nacional de Imunizações do Brasil (Brazilian National Immunization Program) has been experiencing a major challenge with regard to vaccination coverage for children, which has been dropping. Several aspects are related, but certainly vaccine hesitancy has been strengthening itself as one of the main concerns of Brazilian public administrators and researchers. Vaccine hesitancy is the delay in acceptance or refusal despite having the recommended vaccines available in health services, being a phenomenon that varies over time, over location and over types of vaccines. Hesitant individuals are between the two poles of total acceptance and refusal of vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new in European and North-American countries, and even in Brazil, it has been studied even if under another name. The drop of vaccination coverage observed from 2016 on reiterates the relevance of the theme, which must be better understood through scientific research.

摘要：巴西国家免疫规划（Brazilian National Immunization Program）的运作成效斐然，但目前正面临儿童疫苗接种覆盖率持续走低的严峻挑战。该现象关联多重诱因，其中疫苗犹豫（vaccine hesitancy）已然成为巴西公共管理者与科研人员关注的核心议题之一。疫苗犹豫指即便卫生服务机构可提供推荐接种的疫苗，受众仍出现接种接受延迟或拒绝接种的情况，该现象随时间、地域及疫苗种类的不同而存在差异。存在犹豫倾向的个体介于完全接受与完全拒绝疫苗接种的两个极端之间。疫苗犹豫在欧美国家并非新兴议题，即便在巴西，相关研究也曾以其他名称开展过。2016年以来观测到的疫苗接种覆盖率下滑情况，再次凸显了该议题的重要性，亟需通过科学研究进一步深化对其的理解。