Improving immunization equity: bridging communities and health systems

The RIVER-EU project’s (Reducing Inequalities in Vaccine uptake in the European Region – Engaging Underserved communities) European Public Health Week webinar will explore how to build stronger bridges between communities and health care systems to improve immunization equity. Involving communities with low vaccination rates is particularly important to increase trust, accessibility and acceptability of vaccination services and improve overall coverage rates. The RIVER-EU project (2021-2026) works with eight underserved communities across Europe to understand the facilitators and barriers they experience when accessing vaccination services, particularly for measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

Speakers in this session will share their experiences establishing relationships with the community and discuss promising approaches to address vaccine equity and accessibility which may be transferable from one setting to another.

This event is for anyone involved in community care, especially for those interested in the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, and underserved ethnic and religious minority communities.

Moderator: Danielle Jansen, Principal investigator, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), RIVER-EU project coordinator

AGENDA

15.00 Introduction
15.05 Fireside chats highlighting experiences from:

• The Arab Israeli community in Israel, Dr. Jumanah Essa-hadad, Bar Ilan University (BIU) Israel
• The Ukrainian migrant community in Poland, Prof. Maria Ganczak, Vice-President, Infectious Disease Control Section, EUPHA; Dept of Infectious Diseases, University of Zielona Gora, Poland
• The migrant and refugee community in Greece, Mrs. Pania Karnaki, Prolepsis Institute
• Turkish and Moroccan adolescent females in the Netherlands, Dr. Janine de Zeeuw, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), the Netherlands
• The marginalized Roma community in Slovakia, Dr. Daniela Fiľakovská Bobáková, Pavol Jozef Safarik University, Slovakia

15.40 Opening floor for Q&A
15.55 Conclusion
16.00 END