HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at Madrid, Spain or Virtually from your home or work.
Irena Bralic, Speaker at Pediatrics Conferences
University of Split,, Croatia (Hrvatska)

Abstract:

Vaccination is one of the greatest achievements of contemporary medicine. It has been proven to be the most successful and economically most sustainable measure in primary preventive medicine. The responsibility of doctors for the implementation of vaccination programmes is great, regardless whether they are directly involved in their realization or not. With the development of new technologies and the globalization of society, vaccination is increasingly drawing the attention of the media and the wider society and politics, and not just the scientific and medical community.The health culture of prevention of disease by vaccination is a reflection of the enlightenment of the population, the accessibility of the health care system, and the development of society. An effort is made to include the vaccination programme, as a complex medical intervention, in the regular health care system. Vaccination may be undertaken according to a centralized or a de-centralized model, whether it is mandatory, mandatory for risk groups, recommended to everyone, or only recommended to risk groups. The vaccination calendar is adopted on a national level, according to the needs of the population. Thanks to vaccination, small pox has been eradicated, probably polio myelitis will soon be too, and morbidity has been significantly reduced by vaccinating against preventable diseases. Vaccination prevents on average the death of more than 2.5 million children each year. Vaccines are still not sufficiently available in underdeveloped countries due to poverty. At the same time, despite the obvious benefits of vaccination, especially in developed countries, there has been a noticeable rise in vaccine hesitancy. With the fall in the number of vaccinated people on a global, national, regional and local level, the risk is growing of epidemics breaking out once again of illness which until recently were in the phase of elimination. Evidence based education, especially the experience and attitudes of all health professionals, as potential educators of the population, is the foundation for successful vaccination. In the lecture, a historical overview is given, based on scientific evidence, of the health care culture of prevention of disease by vaccination. The current paradox is explained of the reduction in vaccination levels, despite the proven benefit of vaccination on the level of individuals and populations, and a vision is presented of the clinical use of new vaccinations in the future.

Biography:

Irena Bralic is a head doctor (Primarius), a specialist paediatrician, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, and scientific associate at the Medical Faculty of the University of Split, permanently employed in a Specialized Paediatric Practice. She is the author and editor of the university textbook Prevention of Diseases in Childhood, the university handbook Vaccination and Vaccines, and the sold-out handbook for parents, How to Grow Up Healthy. She has published more than forty papers in recent journals, and she has been an invited speaker at many foreign and national conferences. She is the head of the scientific project of the Ministry of Science of the RC entitled; Secular changes in growth and the appearance of obesity during puberty. She is the head of category 1 courses in the life-long education of doctors, in the series New Challenges in the Prevention of Diseases in Childhood. Her narrow field of professional and scientific interest are preventive programmes in childhood and adolescence, vaccination, growth and development, and obesity. She is a member of the Management Board and Treasurer of the Croatian Paediatrics Society.

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