Foreign Minister: There is no money to vaccinate children against rotavirus

A vaccine for children to protect them from rotavirus will not be reimbursed by the government. Secretary of State Martin van Uygen (Public Health) decided that because there was no money for it. And he wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that the extension of two more vaccines will be compensated.

This relates to the extension of the HPV vaccine in young adults between the ages of 18 and 26 years. It concerns women who have not been vaccinated before and men who were not previously eligible for vaccination. It has already been decided that in addition to girls, boys can also be vaccinated against HPV from this spring and the age of this will be reduced to 10 years. The HPV vaccination protects against cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, labia cancer, penile cancer, anal cancer, and oral and throat cancer.

flu vaccine

The annual influenza vaccine is also offered to high-risk groups: people with COVID-19, morbid obesity and dementia, and pregnant women from 22 weeks of gestation. They are usually contacted through a GP. There will be a different route for pregnant women through obstetric care providers.

There is no money

With these extensions, the Secretary of State is following up on previous recommendations of the Health Council. The board also wanted a rotavirus vaccination, but van Augen would not pursue that. Rotavirus can cause gastroenteritis, especially in infants and young children. The infection can be severe. Each year, about 3,600 children under the age of five end up in hospital with her. Some children die from rotavirus.

Van Ooijen regrets that the additional funds needed for all three groups were not made available in the spring memo, which was sent to the House of Representatives on Friday. “It didn’t work with rotavirus. Of course I would have preferred it differently, but since finances are really limited at the moment, we had to make choices,” he says.