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Vaccine confidence among the public and healthcare professionals is high across most populations, with some exceptions and caveats. Between 2018 and 2020, there was a large increase in public perception towards vaccines across the EU, particularly towards the seasonal influenza vaccine. Many of these 2020 gains have since been reversed. Perceptions towards the importance, safety, and effectiveness of vaccines have declined across the EU between 2020 and 2022. Across the EU, the view that vaccines are safe remains higher than 2018 levels. Yet, EU-wide changes in public perceptions towards the importance and safety of vaccines shows that strong vaccine-dependence and variability in vaccine confidence exist between countries and within sociodemographic characteristics.
The low adult vaccination coverage in Europe and the barriers experienced during the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination strategies in almost all European countries underline the need for a thorough reflection on adult immunization programs in Europe. Therefore, the team of Prof. Paolo Bonanni – Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence (Italy) and Prof. Pierre Van Damme, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp (Belgium) joined forces to create an “Adult immunization board (AIB)” based on years of experience with the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board (VHPB, created in 1992) and the HPV Prevention And Control board (HPV Board, created in 2015). In this contest, Active Citizenship Network has become an independent advisor to the Adult Immunization Board (AIB).
After the pandemic, we should have understood that everyone's health is interconnected: this is the vision that inspired the Civic Charter on Global Health on which Cittadinanzattiva worked throughout 2022, to promote awareness among citizens and institutions and identify concrete actions to protect - as a fundamental human right - the global health.
Founded on three pillars (health, environment and social justice), the Charter proclaims 13 rights that, taken together, aim to guarantee every person in the interest of the individual and the community "global health”, understood as state of bio-psycho-social well-being interconnected with biological, economic, and social, political, cultural and environmental, and commercial determinants.
In line with its long-lasting commitment on the topic, Active Citizenship Network has recently joined the AMR Patient Group. Led by Health First Europe, in which since many years the ACN Director is Member of the Executive Committee, the AMR Patient Group is open to working with patient groups across Europe to address the serious public health threat posed by Antimicrobial Resistance. To know more, click here.
Active Citizenship Network is glad to announce that the Italian MEP Fabio Massimo Castaldo has officially joined the other institutional supporters of the Interest Group on Patients’ Rights and Cross-Border Healthcare - promoted by Active Citizenship Network in 2015 and currently at its second turn (2019-2024) with its essential role in putting the patients’ perspective at the centre within the EU health policy agenda - and the Inter-institutional Group “SDGs for well-being and consumers’ protection”, launched in February 2021. Fabio Massimo Castaldo was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014, where he was subsequently appointed Vice-President in 2017, as the youngest Vice-President in the history of the European Parliament.
Cittadinanzattiva's project, “Health for the Youngs”, came to its second edition and aimed to involve high school students in an educational path dedicated to prevention, antimicrobial resistance and vaccines. It provides students with the tools and necessary information to adopt correct hygiene and prevention behaviours to limit the spread of infectious diseases. “Health for the Youngs” transfers power on a fundamental issue such as health and well-being and awareness to younger generations. And it did so within the Italian public school system that has shown to be one of the privileged places in which propose and develop new approaches capable of impacting health education for young people, making them protagonists. To learn more about the project, click here (IT).
With the escalation of the hostilities and the destruction of most of the infrastructure in the Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine, millions of civilians are bracing ahead of the cold months to come.
Orphans Feeding Foundation, partner of Active Citizenship Network, has now launched "Winter is Coming" campaign, which aims to provide the necessary support to millions of civilians in the coming cold months to come. Click here to learn more and help people in need in the liberated areas in Ukraine. Recently, The Ukrainian parliament has awarded Mariam Lambert, the co-founder of Orphans Feeding Foundation, a medal of merit for services to Ukraine.
In coherence with its multi annual commitment on the topic of sustainable mobility and as associated partner, for the 2022 European Mobility Week Cittadinanzattiva launched in Italy an online guide and a telephone number available to citizens and appealed to institutions and companies to promote a new urban mobility culture. The guide includes information on how the public transport service is provided, practical information on the various benefits of the so-called shared mobility, what the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) provides, and advice for ecological driving. For citizens wishing to report disservices regarding public transport, Cittadinanzattiva provided a national telephone desk active on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To know more & download the guide, click here (IT).
EENA, Cittadinanzattiva's partner on the European project ENGAGE, analyses what else can be done to involve children more actively in public safety and, in doing so, cites Cittadinanzattiva's initiative for the "19th National Day of Safety in Schools" that sheds light on how the pandemic changed schools. On this occasion, Cittadinanzattiva created a safety smartbox (IT) with valuable materials to promote resilience in the face of disasters in schools. To download the EENA report, click here, to know more about Cittadinanzattiva's contribution, click here.
All potential eligible patients have the right to access Advanced Therapies Medical Products (ATMPs) and national health budget constraints cannot be a barrier to this. Read ACN Director’s article published on Active Citizenship Network’s media partner Health Europa on the occasion of the event “Securing Equitable Patient Access to Advanced Therapies across Europe”, realized Monday 24 of October 2022 by Active Citizenship Network at the EU Parliament.
Cittadinanzattiva APS
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