An experienced consultant paediatrician is urging parents to waste no time and have their children vaccinated after the health authorities alerted doctors to a possible measles outbreak.
The paediatrician, Victor Grech, told the Times of Malta the problem was “very serious” and parents should rush to take their children to clinics to be vaccinated.
Not doing so was “illogical” and could put other, more vulnerable patients at risk, he warned, adding that the vaccine was offered for free to all children.
On claims that the vaccine could cause children harm, something parents often claimed when refusing to have them vaccinated, Prof. Grech said such fears had been discounted years ago.
“People still believe data that was published about 12 years ago by a doctor who has now been removed and the information discredited,” he said.
“It’s very irresponsible and illogical not to give children the vaccine.”
Children are given the MMR vaccine when they are 13 months old followed by a second dose when they are between three and four in accordance with the local immunisation schedule.
Individuals who have received two doses of measles vaccine or confirmed to have measles infection in the…
