A little over a month ago Italy announced that it will impose mandatory vaccination for admission to nursery schools from next year, joining other European countries that implemented the same obligation. Now the Government of France has announced that will impose in 2018 the mandatory vaccination of eleven diseases for children under two years.
So far only three vaccines were mandatory (diphtheria, tetanus and polio), to which another eight that were recommended so far will be added: whooping cough, hepatitis B, Pfeiffer bacillus, pneumococcus, meningococcus C, and measles, mumps and rubella.
Non-vaccination has become a public health problem in the French country, as in other countries where the recommended 95% vaccination coverage has declined, in which some diseases already eradicated have begun to reappear.
France has one of the lowest immunization coverage in Europe. For measles, around 75% has stagnated for several years, well below the threshold necessary for its elimination.
For its part, in Italy, where the increase in measles cases has tripled in the last year, it has also forced the authorities to take action on the anti-vaccination case.
As of the next school year, children must have twelve compulsory vaccines per day or else they will be prevented from entering nursery or nursery school. In the event that children are older than six years and are not vaccinated, parents face fines of between 500 and 7,500 euros, or in severe cases, the possibility of loss of custody of their children.
When in Spain?
Other European countries that have imposed mandatory vaccination are Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary, however Spain has not pronounced in favor of the obligation even though
The Spanish Association of Pediatrics publishes its recommended vaccines calendar every year, with updated news; But it is not mandatory. After all, it is a decision of the parents that their children are vaccinated or not.
But when the non-vaccination of some harms everyone, the problem already goes beyond the sphere of personal decision to become a health problem for everyone.
