Opinions about the dangers of vaccination are unfounded, because till now only their efficiency has been proven scientifically. This was the response of the Head of the national immunization program of the Ministry of Health of Armenia Gayane Sahakyan to the request of NEWS.am Medicine to comment the actively discussed information about the dangers of vaccination.

In particular, it is believed that vaccination cannot do away with infectious diseases, they will always be there as long as the mankin dexists, simply some diseases will disappear, but they will be replaced by other, more aggressive mutated viruses.

People associate with vaccination also the sharp growth of autism, increase in the number of children's cancers, Alzheimer's disease and the spread of multiple sclerosis, etc. In Russia doctor Galina Chervonskaya is actively speaking against vaccination, advising mothers to abandon the compulsory vaccination of children.

According to G. Sahakyan, no one has yet presented evidence about the dangers of vaccinations. «From the other hand, there is enough evidence on efficiency of vaccination. Today, many have forgotten diseases such as polio and diphtheria, rubella and measles, and this is made possible by the fact that 95% of children have been vaccinated», - she said. According to the specialist, cases of meningitis and diarrhea caused by rotavirus in children under five years have been reduced by 50%, number of hospitalizations for the year decreased by 20%. «All this testifies to the effectiveness of vaccination», she noted.

Regard to the link between autism and vaccines, then, according to Sahakian, the causes of autism are still not identified.«20 years ago there was an article, just an article, which said that vaccination against measles, rubella and mumps may play a role in autism.Two large-scale studies in the United States and Denmark were conducted, in which the indexes of autism were estimated in control group, where children were not vaccinated, and in the group with vaccinated children, and believe me, there was no difference in indexes at all in both groups», she said, and then added, that a similar research was done in England, too. «In 1995, when the hype was risen over the fact that the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella causes autism, in England this vaccination was removed from vaccine immunization schedule, and as a result, cases of autism did not diminish, moreover, in 1998 the country faced a major outbreak of measles», she said.