Parents in Germany region who fail to vaccinate their children could face health issues after the German government-backed a bill requiring all children to obtain a measles jab before entering school or kindergarten.
If the German parliament approves the invoice, parents will be required to provide evidence that their child has been vaccinated before they are enrolled, and will face fines of up to €2,500 ($2,800) if they fail to do so.
“Whether in kindergarten, at the childminder or school — we want to protect all youngsters against measles infection,” Health Minister Jens Spahn quoted in a statement.
The move taken as Germany reported one of the highest numbers of contagious disease cases in Europe between the March 2018 and month of February this year, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control report. In 2019, 429 numerous cases were registered in Germany by mid-June, the Health Ministry mentioned, suggesting the problem is escalating.
Measles is a highly contagious spreading disease caused by a virus that can spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can also unfold if someone comes into direct contact or shares germs by touching the identical objects or surfaces. Measles symptoms may embody fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, and a rash of red spots.
It takes just two doses of the vaccine to protect from measles disease. While 97% of German children had their first dose, the percentage that received the second dose dropped to 93%, the World Health Organization said for 2017. Experts say about 95% of people must be vaccinated to make communities immune.
WHO has deemed vaccine hesitancy — the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines — a top 10 threat to global health in 2019.
Among high-income countries, the United States topped the list of children not vaccinated with the first dose, according to WHO. There have been 1,123 there as of Friday, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the highest number reported in the United States since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, meaning it was no longer continuously transmitted in the nation.