A severe vaccination crisis

Romania is facing its most severe vaccination crisis in the past decades

Corina Cristea, 17.02.2026, 13:55

Informational shortcomings, misinformation in social media as well as systemic setbacks such as the excessive red tape, material shortages, the cancellation of vaccination campaigns in schools and also the rural isolation may lead to dramatic situations concerning measles: less than half of the children got their first dose of vaccine last year.

This describes the situation in Romania currently facing the severest vaccination crisis in the past decades, as representatives of the Save the Children Organisation have pointed out. The aforementioned organisation has been building social programmes, public policies and solid practices to benefit children in Romania for the past 36 years and according to a survey released on Monday, the vaccination cover networks for MMR (measles, mumps rubella) have progressively diminished especially for the second dose, which should be administered in five years.

It didn’t take long for the consequences to appear; most of Europe’s measles infections last year were reported in Romania. More exactly, out of 32 thousand infections in the past three years, more than 27,500 came from Romania says the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Italy was second in the ranking with less than 11 hundred cases reported.

In the mean time, Romania reported 30 deaths caused by rubella, according to the National Institute of Public Health. However, this is not the only vaccination campaign Romania is bad at: all the values in the national vaccination scheme are under the target of 95%, recommended by the World Health Organization.

According to conclusions of the European Regional Verification Commission for Measles & Rubella Elimination (RVC) released in September last year, Romania is among the 13 countries in the WHO European Region with endemic measles propagation, which means the disease is continuously circulating among its population.

Here is Silvia Burcea, coordinator of the Mother and Child Health programme with the Save the Children Organization.

Silvia Burcea:” We should find out which are the setbacks and causes concerning these low vaccination rates. According to family physicians, and community medical assistants, there is the lack of information, misinformation in the social media, which is a major factor, but also systemic barriers, such as the excessive red tape, the lack of material resources and also the cancellation of vaccination campaigns in schools.”

“Save the Children” has called on the authorities to simplify the system of vaccination registration and stage communication training campaigns for medical personnel as well as the development of a multi-discipline team at local level to promote the vaccination of children.

(bill)