Parents in Italy are fined 500 euros, Australia cuts family support if they do not vaccinate their children.
Low vaccination rates can lead to disease outbreaks that affect communities, including children. To prevent disease, many countries have imposed penalties on people who do not get vaccinated.
In September, the Sindh province of Pakistan passed a law to penalize parents who do not vaccinate their children against polio. The maximum penalty is up to one month in prison and a fine of 50,000 Pakistani rupees (about 4 million VND). This is the first law in the country related to vaccination, introduced in the context of wild polio cases still appearing in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Italy introduced mandatory vaccinations for children under 6 in 2019, following a spike in measles cases since March of that year. Parents of children aged 6-16 must provide proof of vaccination against polio, measles, chickenpox, rubella and mumps before enrolling them in school.
If parents do not comply, they could be fined 500 euros (equivalent to more than 12 million VND). Children under 6 years old who are not vaccinated will be banned from entering preschool.
As a result, 300 children were suspended from school for not being vaccinated. Vaccination rates then reached 95% in the under-5 age group, equivalent to the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Many countries apply penalties to increase vaccination rates and prevent disease outbreaks. Photo: Pexcel
In 2015, Australia introduced a “no jab, no pay” policy. The government will not pay childcare subsidies or year-end income tax rebates if a family has unvaccinated children. The estimated cost could be more than $9,600 a year for a couple (equivalent to more than VND200 million).
Authorities also fined schools that enroll unvaccinated children. The fines are around $24,000, equivalent to more than VND580 million.
Two years after the "no jab, no pay" policy was implemented, the rate of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus booster shots in the 5-6 age group increased from 9.4% to 15.5%. The vaccination rate in the 10-19 age group increased from 86.6% to 89%.
In France, since 2018, the country has added eight mandatory vaccines for children, including whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, influenza, pneumonia and meningococcal meningitis, in addition to diphtheria, tetanus and polio. Parents can be imprisoned if they do not vaccinate their children.
Vietnam has Circular 38/2017 of the Ministry of Health, stipulating 10 vaccines in the mandatory vaccination schedule of the Expanded Immunization Program (EPI), including: hepatitis B, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, diseases caused by Hib bacteria, measles, Japanese encephalitis, and Rubella.
In Article 9 of Decree No. 117/2020 of the Government, the act of not implementing or preventing children and pregnant women from using mandatory vaccines and medical biological products will be warned or fined from 300,000 to 500,000 VND; administrative fine of 1-3 million VND for the act of not vaccinating or preventing vaccination in case of risk of infectious diseases in epidemic areas.
Vaccination protects people's health. Photo: Tuyet Huynh
Doctor Bach Thi Chinh, Medical Director of the VNVC Immunization System, said that the compulsory vaccination program in Vietnam helped eliminate polio in 2000, neonatal tetanus in 2005 and many other diseases.
"If many people do not get vaccinated, the disease can continue to circulate, break out and spread to those who are not immune, for example, children who are not old enough to be vaccinated or people who are contraindicated to use the vaccine," said Dr. Chinh.
Dr. Chinh said that vaccination is lifelong. To protect the health of the entire community, adults also need to be vaccinated, focusing on high-risk groups, susceptible to illness and severe illness, including pregnant women, the elderly, and people with underlying diseases.
Nhat Linh
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