The percentage of newborns participating in the immunisation programme targeting mumps, measles and rubella rose slightly over the past year.

From 16 December 2019, pregnant women in the Netherlands will be offered the 22-week vaccination. With this vaccination, a pregnant woman protects her child and herself against whooping cough.

Today, on 10 December a policy toolkit will be presented at the final conference of the European four-year research project INHERIT.

In the first six months of 2019, the number of notified meningococcal serogroup W (MenW) disease cases decreased in almost all age groups, after a continuous increase since 2015.

Since the 1970s, European policies to improve air quality have resulted in fewer emissions in many countries.

Exposure to environmental noise is expected to cause more health problems in the Netherlands. There is increasingly more noise, and new houses are being built closer to noise sources.

As of this autumn, RIVM will advise against burning wood in unfavourable weather conditions and or poor air quality.

In the coming weeks, RIVM will derive a temporary background value for PFAS in Dutch soil. This will be done based on measurement data from the provinces in the Netherlands.

There is concern about the current approach to nitrogen and the proposed measures; these concerns have been expressed in Dutch society as a whole and amongst farmers in particular.

The vaccine against the HPV human papillomavirus virus will also become available for boys.