"No-vax" kids banned from some Italian schools

ROME, May 2 (Xinhua) -- School authorities in Italy's northern Piedmont region have banned children from four different families from attending kindergarten because the parents failed to comply with a government immunization deadline, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Wednesday.

A government decree approved into law in July last year increases the number of mandatory vaccines for kids aged up to 16 years from four to 10.

The measure includes immunization against highly contagious diseases such as measles, polio, and rubella, and makes completing these vaccinations a pre-requisite for children to attend school.

Italy has seen a drop-off in immunizations in recent years in the midst of highly organized "no-vax" campaigns claiming that vaccines cause autism.

The populist Five Star Movement and the rightwing League, the two winners of Italy's March 4 general election, have endorsed "no-vax" positions in the past and oppose mandatory immunizations.

Perhaps as a result, a measles epidemic flared up in Italy beginning in January 2017. Last year almost 5,000 people were infected and four people died the highly contagious disease, according to the Health Ministry.

Italy has seen 411 cases of measles and three cases of rubella between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 this year, according to the Superior Institutes of Health (ISS).

Of the measles cases, 92 were children under five years old and 28 were infants under 12 months old, while 91 percent of those affected had not been vaccinated, according to the ISS.

Measles has the potential for large outbreaks wherever immunization coverage has dropped below the necessary threshold of 95 percent of the population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is globally still one of the leading causes of childhood mortality, and the only way to prevent it is by immunization, according to the WHO. Enditem