Ministries working to encourage vaccination
PUTRAJAYA: Amid the rising anti-vaccine movement, two ministries are finding ways to get parents to give health protection to their children, says the Deputy Prime Minister.
Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said although parents have the right to decide on vaccination, the authorities will continue to encourage and emphasise its importance and benefits.
“The Women, Family and Community Development is engaging the Health Ministry to see how best we can approach parents on this issue.
“There are currently no laws to make it compulsory for parents to vaccinate their children.
“This remains their choice, but we strongly recommend that their children be given protection against any untoward health issues,” she said after presenting a special OKU (people with disabilities) card for students with learning challenge and disabilities.
The card is meant to identify students who have global developmental delay, Down Syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and specific learning disabilities so that intervention and specific rehabilitation efforts can be given to them.
On Feb 23, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said a law might be tabled in Parliament to make vaccinations compulsory.
Misinformation about vaccination had led to a huge jump in the number of vaccinepreventable diseases, with cases of measles increasing 10-fold from 125 in 2013 to 1,467 last year.
Doctors have called for all children in Malaysia to be first immunised against diphtheria and measles as a practical way of kick-starting a compulsory policy on vaccination as suggested by the Health Ministry.
Previously, Dr Wan Azizah had said that the government was studying a proposal to only allow vaccinated children to enrol into school due to a rise in preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria, as well as a fall in vaccination rates.
But Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik was reported to have said that vaccines and the right to education were two different things.
He pointed out that vaccinations were under the Health Ministry whereas the Education Ministry believed that all Malaysian children had the right to education without discrimination.