Table 1.

Potential medical impact of some vaccine-preventable infectious diseases (based on fact sheets available on the ECDC website) (14)

			Risk of
Vaccine-preventable diseases	Age and population at risk of infection	Potential complications and medical impact	lifelong cognitive impairment	lifelong physical impairment	death
Measles	Can be contracted at any age	Pneumonia, encephalitis, death	x	x	x
Chickenpox	90% of cases in children aged <10 years. Fewer than 15% of chickenpox cases in people aged >15 years; most severe cases in adults, with chances of complications increasing with age	Encephalitis, secondary infections (severe streptococcus, skin infection), hepatitis, pneumonia: can be fatal in around 10% of cases	x	x	x
Pneumococcal disease	Any age but most likely to happen in children aged <2 years and adults aged >65 years	Bacterial meningitis, pneumonia, blood infection, septicaemia	x	x	x
Seasonal flu	Can be contracted at any age	Ear and sinus infections, pneumonia, heart inflammation, and death		x	x
Rotavirus gastroenteritis	Mostly in children aged <5 years	Severe dehydration (loss of 10% of weight in children), sometimes death			x
Whooping cough (pertussis)	Can be contracted at any age – most severe cases in babies <6 months of age	Coughing spells so bad that it is hard to eat, drink, or breathe. Can last for weeks and lead to pneumonia, seizures (jerking and staring spells), brain damage, or death	x	x	x
Hepatitis B	Chronic infection is most likely to develop in young babies. Most infections occur in adults in high-risk groups	Chronic infections can lead to inflammation of the liver, liver damage (called cirrhosis), and cancer		x	x
Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)	Aged 2 months–5 years	Most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children before the introduction of the vaccination, leading to brain damage or death (up to 10% of cases)	x	x	x
Tetanus	The highest tetanus risk in Europe is found in the unvaccinated elderly	Painful tightening of muscles can lead to spasm, and death in 10% of cases		x	x
Polio	Can be contracted at any age	In children aged <5 years: paralysis of one leg is most common In adults: extensive paralysis of the chest and abdomen is more likely May lead to death		x	x
Diphtheria	Can be contracted at any age	Can lead to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure, and even death		x	x
Meningococcal disease	Most frequently occurs in young children, but a second disease peak is observed among adolescents and young adults	Even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate treatment is started, 5 to 10% of patients die, typically within 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms. Bacterial meningitis may result in brain damage, hearing loss, or a learning disability in 10 to 20% of survivors	x	x	x
Mumps	Children aged 5–9 years most often affected	Deafness, meningitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord covering), painful swelling of the testicles or ovaries, and, rarely, death	x	x	x
Rubella	Children aged 4–9years most often affected	In women: arthritis, risks of miscarriage, congenital anomaly (deaf, blind, mentally retarded, or with heart or brain damage)	x	x
Human papillomavirus (HPV)	Genital warts and HPV-related cancer: adolescents and young adults aged 16–25years	Precancerous cervical, vulvar, and vaginal lesions; cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancer; genital warts		x	x

From Ref. (14).