Ap wants travel ban for unvaccinated children
The Norwegian Labour Party (Ap) wants the Government to review a travel ban to disease ridden countries for families where the children have not been given the MMR vaccine.
– Protection from sickness is something children are entitled to under the UN Convention on Child Rights That consideration must take precedence over the parents’ views on vaccination, says City Counselor for Public Health in Oslo, Tone Tellevik Dahl (Labour), to Dagbladet.
The party also proposes to let municipalities wishing to introduce a mandatory vaccination program for children under the age of 16, and Dahl believes Oslo should be the first municipality to do so.
No call for change
State Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Care Services, Line Miriam Sandberg (Progress Party), thinks there is no need to change today’s system.
– Local decrees will not have any effect. If someone does not wish to vaccinate their children, they can just move to another municipality.
She also believes that a travel ban is drastic and that it will be difficult to enforce, due to stop over’s.
All Norwegian children receive an offer of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, rubella and mumps. The MMR vaccine is normally given at the age of 15 months and is repeated in the 6th grade of primary school.
Figures from the National Institute of Public Health show that 96 per cent of the two-year-olds in Oslo have been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, HiB infection and measles. The figures also show that 97 per cent of 16 year-olds has received one dose of the MMR vaccine, while 92 per cent has taken both shots.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
