Dutch infant DTaP-IPV vaccination uptake declined during and after COVID-19 pandemic

A retrospective nationwide cohort study published in Eurosurveillance assessed first-dose diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-poliomyelitis (DTaP-IPV) vaccination by age 6 months among all children born in the Netherlands in 2016–2024. Researchers used national immunisation register data for interrupted time series analyses and matched-sibling comparisons across pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The supplied report does not state the sample size.

Time series analyses identified significant immediate decreases in uptake at both the start and end of the pandemic, with continuing downward trends during and after it. In matched-sibling analyses, children eligible during the pandemic had lower odds of vaccination than their pre-pandemic siblings (OR 0.66; 95% CI 0.55–0.80). The corresponding post-pandemic OR was 0.20 (95% CI 0.17–0.25). Second-born children also had lower vaccination odds than first-born siblings (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.37–0.48).

The findings highlight persistent reductions in timely infant vaccination and the need to understand barriers to uptake. However, this observational study cannot establish that the pandemic itself caused the declines or distinguish lingering pandemic effects from new post-pandemic factors. Absolute uptake rates were not provided in the supplied text, limiting assessment of the magnitude of the coverage gap.