The president of Italy's national health research organisation on Wednesday said he had been driven to resign due the "anti-scientific" policies of the country's populist government including efforts to undermine confidence in vital vaccinations.

Professor Walter Ricciardi of the National Health Institute (ISS) said an aversion to evidence-based policy among the coalition of Italy's far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) put public health at risk.

"Representatives of the government have endorsed unscientific or frankly anti-scientific positions on many issues," he said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera daily.

"It's clear that when the deputy prime minister says that he, as a father, believes there are too many obligatory, useless and dangerous vaccines, that's not just unscientific, it's anti-scientific," he said in reference to League head Matteo Salvini.

In 2017 Italy's centre-left government made it compulsory for children in pre-school education to be vaccinated against 10 diseases, including measles, tetanus and polio.

The Five Star Movement, then in opposition, led a charge against the law, saying it amounted to a gift to pharmaceutical companies, while the League played on discredited claims that vaccinations can cause autism. The parties came power last year by forming a coalition government.

In the interview Dr Ricciardi listed a wide array of areas in which he accused government policy-makers of ignoring the facts.