Adult vaccination coverage in Belgium remains structurally insufficient and varies sharply from one region to another, according to a new analysis from the health insurer Mutualites Libres, even as coverage among children and young people continues to meet its targets.
Among people over 65 living at home, flu vaccination coverage reaches 58.5 percent in Flanders, compared with 44.7 percent in Wallonia and just 43.3 percent in Brussels, all well short of the World Health Organization's target of 75 percent. Pneumococcal vaccination fares worse still, covering only 14 percent of the at risk population, defined as those over 65 or over 45 with a chronic illness, in the 2023 to 2024 period.
Four barriers, and a fix that needs everyone to agree
Mutualites Libres points to four main obstacles behind the gap: a lack of public information that it says deepens health inequalities, the division of vaccination policy between the federal government and the country's regions, three separate regional registration systems that make coverage difficult to track nationally, and restrictions that limit how much vaccination data mutual insurers can access about their own members, hampering their ability to run targeted awareness campaigns.
The insurer is calling for a single vaccination calendar covering an entire lifetime, replacing today's patchwork of regional schedules, backed by a legally binding cooperation agreement between the federal state and the regions. It argues the investment case is strong, citing estimates that every euro spent on vaccination returns around 19 euros in broader benefits, against a lifetime cost per person of between 600 and 3,500 euros.