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10% -15% of parents in Greece are reserved towards having their children vaccinated. The phenomenon is attributed to the economic crisis, misinformation on the Internet as well as on pandemic influenza.

"Parents are afraid that vaccines are dangerous and that some of them have serious side effects. They learn all this either by word of mouth or through the information on the Internet. Some of the parents, who fortunately are not yet a large number, about 10-15%, are afraid of this and they are mainly mothers aged 35 years. These women seek information on the Internet whereas older ones do not seek information but follow the instructions of the paediatrician."

Professor of Paediatrics and President of the International Paediatric Society and the Hellenic Paediatric Society Andreas Konstantopoulos made the statements before the Athens News Agency on occasion of the presentation of the results of the information campaign during the 53rd Hellenic Congress of Paediatrics that took place in Thessaloniki.

As stated by Prof. Konstantopoulos, paediatricians also say that 10-15% of parents are worried and refuse to have their children vaccinated, mainly with the vaccine against cervical cancer, the triple vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella and the vaccine against rotavirus (that causes diarrhoea).

"Parents associate the measles vaccine with autism, the vaccine against cervical cancer with seizures and spasms, etc. Another interesting conclusion from the information campaign is that when the paediatrician, for more than a quarter of an hour, tried to explain to parents what vaccines are, he managed to convince them and they vaccinated their children."

"We have to emphasize that the information on the Internet, where everyone writes whatever he or she wants, is absolutely unreliable with regard to medicine. There are about 12-14 scientific websites from which we, the physicians, obtain information and we can tell parents to inform themselves from them as well," added Prof. Konstantopoulos.

The President of the International Paediatric Society also explained that the movement against vaccines is not just a Greek phenomenon but also a global one. In the USA, there has been a powerful lobby against vaccines for 20 years now and 30-40% of parents are opposed to having children vaccinated.