Ekaterina Gómez 
The third RIVER-EU newsletter is out! Among other things, we invite you to read about our progress in the past six months and learn more about the field work from researchers working with the selected underserved communities in Slovakia, Finland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination was introduced in 2010 in the national immunization programme, targeted towards adolescent girls in the year they turned 13 years old. The selected vaccine is bivalent, targeting HPV types 16 and 18. In 2022, the HPV vaccination programme was extended to boys, with the first round of vaccinations held in March and April 2022.
Within the RIVER-EU project, a series of qualitative studies were conducted to explore health system barriers to vaccination in selected underserved communities. In Slovakia, the study described barriers to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among girls from marginalized Roma communities from the perspective of Roma girls, their parents, and professionals involved in HPV vaccination who serve this population.
Roma are the largest and most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Europe. For centuries, the history of Roma has been marked by intolerance, punitive policies, assimilation and social engineering which has ultimately resulted in the development of marginalized Roma communities.
Ethnic minority groups are one of several underserved populations that have received significant attention in public health for their reported ‘vaccination hesitancy’ and suboptimal vaccination uptake (Dowden, 2019).
RIVER-EU fieldwork with the Finnish Somali community kicked off at the end of 2021. The Finnish Somali community had been identified as an “empowering example” community due to the unexpectedly high vaccination coverage rates the community has achieved for MMR (measles mumps-rubella) vaccines.
The launch of the European Joint Action PartnERship to Contrast HPV (PERCH) took place on 5 December 2022 in Brussels. Led by the Italian Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità), the three-year PERCH project shares many parallels with RIVER-EU, and hence offers opportunities to strengthen mutual objectives to improve HPV vaccine uptake in Europe.
On 9 November 2022, RIVER-EU held its first in person General Assembly, almost 1.5 years after the launch of the project.
The second RIVER-EU newsletter is out! Catch up on our activities in 2022 and find out what to expect this year.
According to the United Nations an estimated 7.4 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February this year – the fastest exodus of refugees this century.