Doctors Seek Vaccination Requirement

An association of pediatricians in Germany has recommended obligatory vaccination, noting that fewer and fewer children in the country are immunized against diseases like measles or rubella. Wolfram Hartmann, the president of the Association of Child and Adolescent Physicians told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper: "In the USA, no child can go to Kindergarten or school without proof of vaccination... We want the same type of rule for Germany, because if the tendency toward not vaccinating doesn't change soon, we'll continue to see larger epidemics of potentially deadly diseases." According to Hartmann, the number of vaccines sold in Germany from January to September 2004 for measles, mumps and rubella fell 19 percent from the same period a year earlier. Fewer tetanus and polio vaccines were also sold. Only some 50 percent of children got the second immunization that is needed to give good protection against measles, Gernot Rasch of the Standing Committee on Vaccinations at the Robert Koch medical research institute in Berlin reported. The pediatricians said they now want to inform parents in day care settings about the dangers of infectious diseases.