Vaccination Uptake in Newly-Arrived Migrants in France

Abstract

The issue of catching up vaccines among children and adult migrants is of concern in France. Migrants do not represent a homogeneous population, but a majority of them are insufficiently vaccinated on the basis of the French vaccination schedule that includes more vaccine than those of their countries of origin. Among migrants, people in precarious situations or belonging to certain social groups have poorer immunization coverage, are exposed to a delay in the implementation of their catch-up and are at higher risk of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. Epidemic situations of vaccine-preventable diseases have been observed in France, accelerating the awareness of the need to implement catch-up vaccination programs and highlighting the difficulties to implement this catch-up in people who have, for the most, already received vaccinations in their countries of origin but have no vaccine proof. Different catch-up strategies are possible with or without pre- or post-vaccination serologies and were the subject of recommendations co-developed by the French High Authority in Health (HAS) and the French Infectious Disease Society (SPILF).