The proposal aims to provide more children with recommended vaccinations and to offer young boys free HPV vaccines, along with more effective influenza vaccines for risk groups, the Ministry for Health and the Elderly said in a statement published on its website on Thursday.

The proposed vaccination plan will provide more robust protection against influenza and offer boys aged 12 years HPV vaccines on the same terms as girls, the ministry said.

“When we as parents vaccinate our children, we probably do so first and foremost to protect the individual child. But at the same time we are helping to prevent serious infectious diseases from spreading as epidemics amongst the population, reaching those who are too small or weak to be vaccinated themselves,” Minister of Health Ellen Trane Nørby said in the press statement.

“We are not doing this for fun – vaccines save lives every year,” Nørby added.

One element of the programme is a training package for nurses to act as “vaccination ambassadors”, the ministry writes, enabling healthcare workers to speak to parents about the benefits of vaccinations as well as concerns.

The government also proposes information packs for daycares and parent committees setting out the importance of vaccination.

“Parents have a great responsibility to vaccinate their children. Some people need a reminder, others need more information. That’s why we have allocated money for more information for parents – information which can be used at daycares to promote dialogue with parents about the vaccination of their children,” Minister for Children and Social Affairs Mai Mercado said.

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