The questioning of vaccinations is expected to have more general consequences for the overall vaccination effort and Public Health warned on Thursday Sotiris Tsiodras.

Tragic example, the fact that in Europe, after many years, recorded again, epidemics of measles, whooping cough and diphtheriathe president of the Hellenic Society of Infectious Diseases pointed out at a press conference ahead of the 23rd Panhellenic Congress of Infectious Diseases, which is being held in Athens until Sunday.

“2023 saw a significant increase in the number of measles outbreaks worldwide, including 40 of the 53 countries in Europe and at least 10 of the EU countries, and deaths.”

In Greece since the beginning of the year and until today, March 7, 19 cases of measles have been recorded, with a higher frequency in Attica and Crete. The vast majority are people of Greek nationality from the general population, mainly in the 40-55 age group, who are not immune to measlesincluding health professionals who are unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

The figures are slightly different from the outbreak of more than 3,000 people recorded in 2017-2018, which mainly involved young children from Roma communities, as well as people aged 25-44 from the general population who were sick with measles, including and healthcare professionals who were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

“We are not justified in 2024 to have measles epidemics. An infected person with measles infects 12-18 people who are unvaccinated. 30% develop complications such as pneumonia, otitis, dehydration” he added.

The Board members of the Society of Infectious Diseases also referred to the increase in cases of pertussis, where a total of 34 cases and 2 deaths of newborns have been recorded, in strep, where there have been 102 cases of invasive strep A infection and 27 deaths of which 11 involve children. Scientists are also concerned about the outbreak of meningitis in Patras after the detection of 3 cases in students. Mr. Tsiodras said that from today, a team of the EODY is checking the contacts of the students and will administer chemoprophylaxis where necessary, while judging in which cases vaccination is needed.

COVID-19: Significant benefit of using antivirals

The course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus showing immune escape, has over the last year affected key areas of morbidity and mortality associated with the infections, particularly in older people, scientists said.

“The use of antiviral drugs for the disease COVID-19 has been well accepted and led to a significant benefit for the Greek citizens, as demonstrated by the recently published experience with data from our homeland. We analyzed over 23,000 patients and saw a significant benefit with antivirals, a 70% reduction in the risk of hospitalization and death. The effect of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir was more significant in elderly patients. Members of the Company played a leading role,” said Mr. Tsiodras.

The importance of vaccination

In the last year, added were recorded multiple co-epidemics of other viral respiratory diseases such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus which seriously affect younger ages as well as other bacterial diseases such as those caused by streptococcus pyogenes. The continuous surveillance of infections with molecular and other newer methods leads to a better understanding of the epidemiology and the implementation of appropriate therapeutic and preventive measures in cooperation with Public Health agencies, treating physicians and the public.

Prevention measures, including vaccination, are the best health policy to avoid infections. The low acceptance of vaccination for the disease COVID-19 is due to misinformation about the safety of the vaccines, without mentioning the huge benefit to the health of the population, which is estimated at millions of lives annually globally.

The threats of climate change – The latest scientific data on infections

Climate change will also be discussed at the 23rd Panhellenic Conference on Infections. As Mr. Tsiodras mentioned, 2023 was the hottest year in the world to date and multiple extreme weather phenomena were recorded in our country as well. Dengue virus, West Nile virus, Malaria, Leptospirosis are some of the existing threats related to infections in our country as well. “Every year in the last decade we have imported cases of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, the tiger mosquitoes, such as Dengue fever which led to epidemics in Southern Europe in 2023 and in our Greece in imported cases in patients who had recently traveled to endemic Countries”.

The goal of the Hellenic Society of Infections in the immediate future is the creation of nationwide working groups for specialized infection issues, which will lead to further development of its work in relation to the Greek reality. This is a necessary national effort which will set the conditions for further international collaborations in the European and the rest of the world, concluded Mr. Tsiodras.