After months of political discrepancies, the so-called "Lorenzin Law" has finally come into force in Italy, which imposes compulsory vaccination in children from zero to six years of age to access nurseries and schools, and fines to parents of older children who do not vaccinate.
The measure, proposed in May 2017 by former Italian health minister Beatrice Lorenzin, should have entered into force last year, but has been delayed due to disagreements in the current Government.
Without vaccines there is no school for children, and parents will face fines
For two days in Italy, to attend kindergartens and schools, children from zero to six years should have vaccines against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox.
The schools are forced to verify the vaccination status of minors, so that those children who are not vaccinated without medical cause to prove it, will not be able to continue attending daycare or school.
Children from six to 16 years old they cannot be rejected in schools because they are not vaccinated, but his parents face fines of up to 500 euros.
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As we said at the beginning, the "Lorenzin Law" (named for the health minister who promoted it) was drafted by the previous government of the Democratic Party and approved on May 19, 2017 through a decree-law of urgent measures.
The main reason why it was then decided to carry out the measure was the important measles outbreak in Italy as a result of the anti-vaccine movement, which has also affected other European countries.
The law was expected to enter into force for the 2017-2018 academic year, but when the current coalition government, formed by the League and the Five Star Movement, came to power, it decided to delay it due to the lack of political consensus.
In MagnetItalia has chosen a Minister of Health for vaccines in the measles epidemicWithin the Italian Government There have been many discrepancies regarding this Law, and the vice president and leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, asked the minister of health, Giulia Grillo, an extension that allowed to extend the terms even more, so that unvaccinated children between zero and six years were not excluded from mid-year schools
But the minister of health believes that parents have had enough time to catch up with the vaccination of their children, and has been blunt: "If there is no vaccine, there is no school."In this way, since last Monday March 11All families with children from zero to six years enrolled in nurseries and schools have had to present their children's immunization cards in their respective schools.
According to Italian media, regional authorities are handling this situation in different ways. In cities like Bologna, parents have been notified by letter of the consequences of not vaccinating their children, while in other places a grace period of a few days has been granted for families to update the vaccination status of children.
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The vaccination rate in Italy is below what WHO recommends, so that this Law is expected to help raise the percentage.
In fact, since the measure was announced in 2017 until its entry into force last Monday, the country's health authorities state that the vaccination rate among children born in 2015 is already around 95 percent.
In order for group immunity to be activated, WHO considers a vaccination rate of at least 95 percent necessary. This would prevent the spread of certain diseases, so that babies or people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons would be protected by the "immunity of the herd".
In Babies and more After overcoming a leukemia you will have to change schools because some classmates are not vaccinatedPhotos | iStock
