Anti-Vaccination and Its Growing Importance

In addition to vaccination being the most effective method of protection against infectious diseases, health organizations such as World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that deaths due to infectious diseases have decreased and some diseases have been eradicated thanks to vaccination. Nevertheless, since the discovery of the first vaccine, anti-vaccination is a concept that has always existed. While individual immunity is achieved through vaccination, community immunity is achieved when a sufficient majority of the community is vaccinated. Ensuring community immunity is important to protect people who cannot be vaccinated due to special circumstances from infectious diseases. The more people who are vaccinated, the less likely it is that unvaccinated people will come into contact with the disease agent. Therefore, the frequency of that disease in the community also decreases. According to data of World Health Organization, vaccination currently prevents 3.5-5 million deaths each year from diseases such as influenza, measles, diphtheria, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus. Health literacy is a multifaceted concept that addresses people's capacity to meet health demands in modern societies. Health literacy is linked to literacy and includes the motivation and competencies of individuals in the process of accessing, understanding, evaluating and applying health-related information. Health literacy is associated with overall health status, hospitalizations, mortality rates and health care costs. Improving health literacy is therefore crucial to improve the relationship between individuals and the health system. Information about vaccines is complex and understanding this information requires a certain level of literacy. Therefore, if people have low levels of health literacy, it will be difficult to communicate this information to them. While health literacy is important in influencing an individual's perception of immunization, immunization is also important for public health. Keywords: vaccines, immunity, health literacy