The Health Department warned that legal action will be taken against parents if their children developed preventable diseases. — Reuters pic

IPOH, Aug 29 — Parents who reject immunisation for their children face legal action if their children contract vaccine-preventable diseases.

The Health Department will take legal action against parents if their children developed preventable diseases — for want of immunity from vaccination.

Perak is believed to be the first state in the country to take this course of action.

The move comes as the country has seen an increase in diseases preventable by vaccination in the past 10 years, including diphtheria, pertussis, and measles.

While noting that no action had been taken so far, State health department director Datuk Dr Juita Ghazalie said the state was prepared to set the ball rolling on this approach.

“So far there have not been any cases like this in the state and no one has been taken to court yet. But we will take action if we do find any child contracting these diseases because their parents refused to allow them to be vaccinated,” she said when officiating a public forum on immunisation in Meru yesterday.

“We plan to take legal action against them for neglecting their children under the Child Act,” she said.

From January to June, Perak recorded 246 cases of vaccine rejection from parents — double the amount recorded in the same period last year.

This included 158 cases reported in health clinics and rural clinics, 76 cases from hospitals and 12 cases by school health teams.

Among reasons given by parents were confusion about the halal status of the vaccines, a fear of possible side effects and a preference for alternative medicine.

“Most of the rejections come from the Malay community. The rejection rate in Perak is among the highest in our country,” she said.

Dr Juita stressed there were no vaccines which did not qualify for a ‘halal’ status in the ministry’s immunisation schedule.

She said it was important for the public to realise that immunisation could prevent infection and minimise the complications suffered by infected patients.

Dr Juita also noted the department was going all out to convince the public of the importance of immunisation.

The message, she said, was spread through awareness campaigns, Friday prayer sermons, and social media.

“After a child is born, we do conduct house checks to see if new mothers have been adhering to their vaccination schedule. But there have been times when our nurses were turned away.

“For those who adopt the anti vaccination stance based on religious beliefs, we also bring along officers from the Islamic Affairs department to advice these mothers,” she said.