Vaccination

Greece has one of Europe's lowest vaccination rates, according to a new study published by the European Commission which also found that immunity to measles has been dropping since 2010.

Only two out of three Bulgarians agree that vaccines are safe and 72.7 per cent believe they are effective - among the lowest level of trust among European Union nationals, according to a report published by the European Commission on Wednesday to mark World Polio Day.

Sofia. The flu vaccine is underestimated in Bulgaria, considering that in developed European countries 30% to 60% of the population relies on this prevention measure, National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Director Prof. Todor Kantardjiev told Focus Radio.

The Panhellenic Pharmacists' Association (PFS) has expressed concern over what it described as an "ambiguous" circular issued by the Ministry of Education with regard to child vaccinations.

The head of Moldova's Orthodox Church, Vladimir, which is subordinated canonically to Moscow, has urged his priests in an internal memo to help deal with the current epidemic measles through special prayers.

Clergy should "serve in churches and pray for a stop to the measles epidemic and contagious disease", the Metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova wrote in an internal memo.

Cases of measles in Europe have hit a record high, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

More than 41,000 people have been infected in the first six months of 2018, leading to 37 deaths.

Last year there were 23,927 cases and the year before 5,273. Experts blame this surge in infections on a drop in the number of people being vaccinated.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, has listed Serbia among the seven European countries hardest hit by measles during the first half of this year, with 14 deaths recorded so far.

Ukraine tops the list, with over 23,000 people affected, accounting for over half of the regional total, WHO's report published on Monday shows.

Alarmed by the growing anti-vaccination sentiments among parents in recent years, Turkey's Health Ministry has taken action to reverse this potentially dangerous trend.

Measles still claims young lives in Romania, where nearly 40 children have died in an outbreak that many blame on parents being misled by scare stories that vaccinating them is dangerous.

Prva TV reported this, adding that the child could not be vaccinated against the disease due to an auto-immune illness, and had spent the last three months at the Institute for Health Protection of Mother and Child in Belgrade.

The girl is the third child that died after contracting measles, and the 13th victim in all.