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Vaccination won't be mandatory, Health Minister clarifies
Published:  Jul 3, 2016 6:47 PM
Updated: 2:33 PM

Vaccination will not be made compulsory but efforts to educate parents on immunisation will be ramped up, Health Minister DR S Subramaniam said.

"Very few countries make vaccination mandatory. As a nation, we cannot enforce everything by law," he is quoted by The Star as saying.

His statement comes after Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahya said the government has plans to make vaccination of children compulsory, following the deaths of five children from diphtheria.

The ministry said measles cases are also on the rise because some parents are refusing to vaccinate their children.

Subramaniam said the ministry expected challenges in tackling three groups - the anti-vaccine group, migrants and the hardcore poor.

"The focus is to continue to give people the correct idea that they are not living on an isolated island by themselves and they are endangering others if their children are not vaccinated," Bernama reported him as saying at SJK (T) Ampang today.

He said the ministry will also work with other community development agencies on this.

"They can play a role as you may have the mother who wants to get the child vaccinated but the father refuses. These are complex issues that need to be addressed accordingly."

There have been 13 confirmed diphtheria cases nationwide, of which five were fatal.

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Measles on the rise due to anti-vaccination parents

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