In Italy vaccination of preschool children was made compulsory
Italian authorities have decided to make mandatory vaccination of 12 of the most common diseases for children of preschool age.
Now all the children have no contraindications, will undergo a mandatory vaccination before going to school.
If a six year old child is not vaccinated, the parents will be obliged to pay a fine.
The number of compulsory vaccinations: vaccination against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis and chickenpox.
The incidence of measles among children in Italy this year have risen sharply: during the first months of 2017 were registered in three times more cases of measles than in all of 2016.
In recent years, the number vaccinated against measles children two years of age fell below 80%, whereas previously exceeded 90%. According to who recommendations, the country’s measles vaccination should be held not less than 95% of children under the age of two.
The country’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that the number of children receiving vaccinations dropped due to the spread of “anti-scientific views”.
In recent years, in Italy, popular with young parents are of the theory about the dangers of vaccination and the risks associated with it.
Especially popular were the suggestion made in 1998 by British doctor Andrew Wakefield, about the supposed link between measles vaccination and autism.
Wakefield claimed that the standard vaccination against measles, rubella and mumps can cause in children a severe disorder — autism.
And although the publication of Wakefield was later withdrawn from the Lancet, as the author was accused of falsifying data, but the idea that vaccination may contribute to the development of a number of diseases in children is still popular in many countries.