Law to be amended before two vaccines become mandatory

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry (KKM) has to amend the existing law before the proposal to make two vaccinations compulsory for children is implemented.

Its Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the two vaccines are diphtheria and MMR for measles, mumps and rubella under the National Immunisation Programme (NIP).

“The matter needed to be made mandatory by law as we have to take the cautious measure...we will be bringing it up in Parliament, but not so soon,” he told a media conference after opening the National Level Anti-Aedes Campaign ‘Gotong-Royong’ here yesterday.

He said the matter would be discussed with the Education Ministry as well as the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

Meanwhile, he said the ministry intends to expand the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology throughout the country to eradicate dengue outbreak in the country.

According to him, the technology which was implemented in Penang, is based on a study by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) and it has been showed to be effective in eradicating and preventing the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes.

“If we have sufficient financial resources, we can expand it to other state and in the ministry itself there are AI experts. We feel the time has come for the technology to be used to combat dengue,” he said.

In this regard, Dzulkefly said the number of dengue cases reported from January to March 7 rose to 28,580 cases compared to 11,146 cases reported in the same period last year.

“Considering the increasing number of deaths and cases, each individual and community should ensure a clean surrounding, free of Aedes breeding grounds as dengue infection can be fatal in just five days after the infection,” he said. - Bernama