A study conducted by the European Commission (EC) showed that 98% of Portuguese considered vaccines important for children’s health, while 96.6% thought they were effective and more than 95% said they were safe.

The survey questioned about 29,000 people in the 28 EU countries about vaccines, particularly against measles, a disease that recently had outbreaks in Europe, partly attributed to a reduction in vaccination numbers.

Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria and Latvia are the countries with the lowest proportion of the population who consider the measles vaccine as safe.

Overall in the EU, fewer than 80% believe the measles vaccine is safe and only 70% think the flu vaccine is safe.