France to make childhood vaccines mandatory

Parents in France will be legally required to vaccinate their children against 11 diseases beginning in 2018, the country’s prime minister has announced.

French children were already required by law to be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. The new rule adds pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, pneumococcus and meningococcus C to the list.

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said the requirement applies to all vaccines that are universally recommended by health authorities. He said it was "unacceptable" that children are "still dying of measles" in the homeland of Louis Pasteur, who developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies in the late 1800s.

The announcement comes weeks after neighboring Italy declared that unvaccinated children would not be allowed in state-run schools.

The decisions follow a World Health Organization warning of measles outbreaks throughout Europe. In the first two months of 2017, 79 France reported 79 cases of the disease, including 50 cases in an outbreak in the northeast of the country. From 2008 to 2016 in France, 10 people died of the measles.

And the outbreaks haven't been limited to Europe: Since early April, Minnesota has reported 44 measles cases. 11 patients have been hospitalized, and all but two cases were in people who were unvaccinated.

Vaccines remain controversial, but the fact is they've been proven over and over again to be safe. While mild side effects can occur (such as soreness or redness where the shot was administered, a low-grade fever or fussiness), serious reactions are rare. The bottom line: The benefits of vaccines far outweigh the potential harms, and they're a crucial way to safeguard your child's health.

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France Makes Childhood Vaccines Mandatory