Finnish people have a positive attitude toward vaccination
Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea carries out a consumer targeted Medicines Barometer survey study every second year. According to the Medicines Barometer 2021 publication Finnish people have a mainly positive attitude toward vaccines. Almost all (96 %) of the respondents though that vaccinations are a good way to protect against diseases. Most respondents (93 %) thought […]
Latest news in vaccine technologies
An interview with Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala from the A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. Entirely novel vaccines, developed at record speed, have been employed to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic. The technology these vaccines are based on has however been investigated for over 20 years, and it has […]
Four tips for evaluating the reliability of pharmaceutical information
The volume of pharmaceutical information has grown dramatically in recent decades. Just a few decades ago there was very little information available in writing and no digital information at all. Nowadays, it is possible to find information not only in books but also on the internet, where anyone can set up a website, and […]
GUEST BLOG: WHY ARE NEW VACCINE TECHNOLOGIES NEEDED?
New things are easily seen as something to be afraid of. For example, why should the completely new RNA vaccine technology be used against COVID-19 when there are more traditional ways to produce vaccines that have been used for a long time? There are two key requirements for vaccines: they must be effective and […]
BLOG: mRNA vaccines – safe or something to worry about?
We often have reservations about things that are new and unknown to us. During the coronavirus pandemic, there have been misgivings about vaccines. For example, the media have asked whether mRNA vaccines can change our genetic code or have other serious health effects. My attitude towards vaccines reflects my broad and varied experience as […]
GUEST BLOG: The benefits of being vaccinated are highlighted during the pandemic
In our guest blog at rokotustieto.fi, Mika Rämet, Director of the Vaccine Research Centre, explains why being vaccinated is particularly important during the coronavirus pandemic. A few years ago, I thought I was too busy for the influenza vaccination offered by my employer. I ended up with an infection and high fever that lasted […]
Increase in tick-borne encephalitis cases in Finland
In 2020, 91 cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) were reported in Finland, which is an increase of almost one third on 2019, when 69 cases were reported. Cases increased especially in the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district where 46 cases of tick-borne encephalitis were recorded. Per capita, the highest the number of cases were in […]
What do we know about pandemics? Interview with Ilkka Julkunen, Professor of Virology at the University of Turku
How do pandemics come about, how can they be prevented and what have we learnt from the coronavirus pandemic? A pandemic is a global epidemic that emerges unexpectedly. Pandemics start with a microbe – usually a virus – that originates from somewhere in the animal kingdom and transfers to a human that is in […]
GUEST BLOG: How high does vaccination coverage need to be to establish herd immunity?
In the Rokotustieto.fi guest blog, Mika Rämet, Director of Tampere University’s Vaccine Research Center, explains the factors that have an impact on establishing a vaccination coverage that is sufficient to achieve herd immunity. I am often asked how high vaccination coverage should be in order to establish herd immunity. I dodge the question just […]
Meningococcal vaccination for conscripts and risk groups
In the future, meningococcal vaccination will be given to people with a higher risk of meningococcal diseases due to some other disease they have. Previously, the vaccine was only offered to conscripts and those in voluntary military service. The change has been approved for the National Immunisation Programme and vaccinations have been started in August […]
