Health misinformation: Controversies surrounding Covid-19 vaccines have contributed to vaccine hesitancy among parents. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
PETALING JAYA: While the immunisation rate for children in Malaysia has returned to pre-pandemic levels quicker than other countries, vaccine hesitancy among parents remains a concern, say health experts.
Consultant paediatrician and Immunise4Life programme technical committee chairman Datuk Dr Zulkifli Ismail said childhood vaccination carried out through the National Immunisation Programme (NIP) had exceeded 90%.
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“This is extremely good for the country,” he said, adding that the childhood vaccination uptake in Malaysia had returned to pre-pandemic rates quicker than in other Asian or Western countries.
But controversies surrounding the Covid-19 vaccines have to some extent contributed to vaccine hesitancy among parents.
Fears of the side effects of vaccines are also further amplified by concerns from the Covid-19 vaccines, including the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and the Astrazeneca vaccine developed by scientists at Oxford University.
Some parents erroneously extrapolate the same concerns to childhood vaccines.
“There is a slight drop in the uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine for one-year-olds, but it’s still above 80%,” said Dr Zulkifli.
He said unlike the Covid-19 vaccines, childhood vaccines had a higher safety profile and had been used for decades for millions of children worldwide.
He stressed, however, that healthcare workers needed to understand the reasons for vaccine hesitancy among parents and to better communicate with them.
“There should be more messages to create better vaccine awareness on social media and in clinics where vaccines are administered,” he said.
The loss of trust in information disseminated by official channels for the Covid-19 vaccines as well as on social media had also made anti-vaccine narratives more widespread, Dr Zulkifli added.
Other factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy include inconvenient clinic hours and long waiting times, which could make parents think twice about taking their children for vaccination, he said.
Consultant paediatrician and immunisation advocate Datuk Dr Musa Nordin agreed that parents had mistakenly linked NIP vaccines with Covid-19 vaccines.
He referred to the lower uptake rate of an immunisation programme for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) carried out by the Health Ministry for children born in 2018 and 2019 to protect them from pneumococcal meningitis, pneumonia, middle ear infections and sinusitis.
“The uptake is below the 70% projected coverage for a variety of reasons. One reason is that parents seem to think it is a vaccine against Covid-19, and they have concerns about Covid-19 vaccines,” he said.
The PCV vaccine, he added, was not an mRNA vaccine and had been effective against pneumococcal invasive disease (PID).
He also urged the Health Ministry to provide more data transparency on vaccination status.
“This would help recognise vulnerable communities who are hesitant about vaccines, including religious communities and those without access to NIP vaccines, such as children of refugees, migrants and the stateless,” he said.
Dr Musa also highlighted the urgent need to initiate the vaccination of pregnant mothers with the Tdap vaccine to protect newborns in the first few months of life from pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus.
He noted that in a 2023 Knowledge, Attitude and Practices survey, 85% and 75% of respondents were found to have obtained health information through search engines and social media, respectively.The survey was conducted by various medical groups, including the School of Pharmaceutical Science at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Dr Musa said from his observation, 70% of the vaccine information came from anti-vaccine websites.
“In contrast, only 54% of the respondents in the survey trust government or health agency websites.
“More work needs to be done. The study also showed doctors to be the most trusted and influential persons for vaccine and health information,” Dr Musa added.
Health economics and public health specialist with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Medicine, Prof Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh, said immunisation at an early age was important to reduce diseases and their complications.
The Malaysian population generally had a welcoming response to childhood immunisation, she said.
“In some situations, small pockets of vaccine hesitancy do occur, for example, HPV vaccinations for girls. This will be handled via effective communication,” she said.
She noted that in Sabah and Sarawak, the vaccine rate uptake might differ due to poor access, logistical and travel problems rather than hesitancy.
