A proposal put forward by German Health Minister Jens Spahn to encourage vaccination involves €2,500 fines and kindergarten bans. The measures target diseases such as measles, which are on the rise in Germany.
Measles cases increased by 350% in Europe last year due to lower vaccination rates. The Federal Ministry of Health ‘welcomes’ debate on making vaccination for the disease compulsory. Not everyone in the Bundestag is on board, however.
A regional court has decided that a biologist must pay a doctor €100,000 after the resolution of a bizarre dispute over the very existence of the measles virus.
Scientists and politicians are debating whether to introduce compulsory vaccinations following the recent measles outbreak in Berlin, which has lead to the death of an infant and the closure of a school.
UPDATE: Health authorities in Berlin announced a toddler has succumbed to measles. Earlier, a school in a Berlin suburb was closed because of a pupil infected with the disease. The capital is battling its most serious outbreak since 2001.
Measles have taken hold in Berlin in an outbreak that could have been entirely preventable with vaccines, the federal authority for disease control said in an interview published on Thursday.
A 14-year-old German boy has died due to complications from a measles infection he picked up as baby from an unvaccinated child. Failure to immunize against the disease has led to several fatalities in the country.
Health officials are warning that Germany’s failure to have blanket vaccinations for measles is putting people unnecessarily at risk of catching the potentially dangerous disease.
The number of measles cases in Germany more than doubled in 2011 compared to last year, new figures show, with 1,607 people infected with the virus which can sometimes kill its victims.
A six-year-old girl who caught measles at seven months has developed a chronic and incurable brain inflammation, it was reported Monday. German doctors are warning that not enough parents are inoculating their children.
Worried by a raging measles epidemic in Euro 2008 host countries Austria and Switzerland, German football officials plan to vaccinate the entire national team against the highly contagious disease if need be.
