In North Rhine-Westphalia, children and young people tend to be less protected by vaccinations than the national average for their peers. Corona has reinforced this trend once again. The health insurance company DAK recommends catching up.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - In North Rhine-Westphalia, significantly fewer children and adolescents were vaccinated during the corona pandemic than in the previous period. Compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, there was a decrease of 13 percent in 2021, said the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit in Düsseldorf.
The third largest German health insurance company compared the vaccinations based on data from 142,000 insured children and young people in North Rhine-Westphalia. Extrapolated to the population, around 187,000 fewer girls and boys were vaccinated in NRW in 2021 than in 2019.
The health insurance company spoke of a "vaccination gap" and pointed out that North Rhine-Westphalia was below the national trend for various types of vaccinations. The significant declines have been observed with concern for some time. "The corona pandemic has strengthened this negative trend," said NRW boss Klaus Overdiek. The canceled or postponed vaccinations should be made up for urgently.
According to the survey, there was a decrease, among other things, in vaccinations against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio. 80,000 fewer children were vaccinated here last year than in 2019.
A special case was the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination: While this triple vaccination fell by 27 percent in 2021, the quadruple vaccination, which also includes vaccination against chickenpox, was given more frequently last year with an increase of twelve percent.
