Safety Concerns Regarding Combination Vaccines: Perspective of Select European Countries

Abstract

This study explored health officials’ perception of parental concern regarding the safety of combination vaccines and its impact on policy decisions in different European countries. Interviews were conducted with governmental and non-governmental health officials in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and Sweden over a four-month period. Parental concern regarding the safety of combination vaccines was perceived to be prevalent in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden while no such concern was evident in France. The concern was limited to the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and its alleged causal association with autism and did not carryover to other combined vaccines. Although proposed by certain political groups, no policy changes regarding combination vaccines were made in any study country.