Measles vaccinations now compulsory in Germany

[Rolfe]

I wouldn't consider it a tragedy if a dog dies due to a vaccination. If a dog isn't properly vaccinated, is consequently infected with rabies, bites somebody, and that person dies, now that is a tragedy in my book.

This dog is someone's much-loved pet. If it dies due to a compulsory vaccination, that's a tragedy for one person at least.


And thanks for the birthday wishes!

 

[dann]

I would mourn something like that, too, but I wouldn't refer to it as a tragedy.
I would rather risk my dog's life by having it properly vaccinated than risk the life of a human being because my dog got rabies.

 

[Rolfe]

Nobody is talking about risking anyone getting rabies. The question is of giving a dog in a rabies-free country a rabies booster if the Pet Passport is to be kept up to date, without appreciating the risk. It's not a necessary vaccination, hence it would be extremely sad (insert your own assessment of the degree of sad here) if this unnecessary vaccination were to be given in ignorance of the risk and the dog died.

The Pet Passport is only needed if the animal is going to travel outside Britain again. Probably isn't envisaged, but the owner might decide to keep the passport up to date anyway. The essence of my advice was, forget it. Let the Pet Passport lapse. If it turned out that it was necessary for the dog to travel again one might inquire as to whether DEFRA has any exemptions in place for such a situation - which it may do, as the risk of a once-vaccinated but unboosted dog travelling to a low-risk country is in fact extremely small.

 

[catsmate]

I worded my post badly. I was wondering if the law sets out what happens when a child does have a serious medical reaction to a vaccine. We know there will be a tiny percentage of kids that will suffer adverse reactions to vaccines and if we are making it compulsory I would like to see medical professionals and drug companies made exempt from being sued because the reaction happened.

Ah, I misunderstood.
Yes Germany has a system for recording adverse reactions and side-effects of vaccinations and regulating their licensing and use. It's known as the Arzneimittelgesetz or Medicinal Products Act.

Liability does not exist where "[the product is] used in accordance with its intended purpose, the medicinal product has harmful effects which exceed the limits considered tolerable in the light of current medical knowledge" and "[the manufacturer] shall be exempted from liability to pay damages pursuant [this law] if the facts indicate that the damaging effect of the medicinal product is not attributable to its development and manufacturing process.

 

[catsmate]

In measles related news.
Samoa has closed schools and declared a State of Emergency after over sixteen hundred cases of the disease. Twenty are dead and eleven in critical condition.
The DRC has seen more than four thousand measles deaths this year, twice as many as from Ebola.

 

[dann]

I hadn't heard about that Samoa and DRC! Samoa has now made measles vaccinations mandatory:

Samoa reels from measles outbreak, death toll rises to 20 (AlJazeera, Nov. 23, 2019)

"In Samoa, the proportion of people who are immune to measles is very, very low, one of the lowest in the world," she told AFP.
"So if they aren't able to improve that, this is going to happen again."
The country's vaccination programme was briefly suspended last year when two babies died shortly after being given the MMR vaccine.
Subsequent investigations found the problem was not the widely-used vaccine but the fact that the nurses administering prepared it incorrectly.
Samoa makes measles vaccine mandatory to stop deadly outbreak (AlJazeera, Nov. 18, 2019)

Children bear the brunt as the world's biggest measles epidemic sweeps Congo (Guardian, Nov. 22, 2019)

Years of internal conflict have displaced millions from their homes, limiting their access to preventive health services.
Outbreaks of measles: compounding challenges in the DRC (The Conversation, Nov. 8, 2019)

Also in Tonga and Fiji:
News note on measles outbreaks across the Pacific Islands (Unicef, Nov. 18, 2019)
Tonga to re-vaccinate thousands for measles (RNZ, Nov. 14, 2019)

For those of you who don't know about the history of measles in the Pacific islands:

From February to June 1875 measles swept all of Fiji killing an estimated one-fifth to one-fourth of the general population.
Pacific Island Societies Destabilised by Infectious Diseases (JMVH, vol. 24, No. 4)

 

[deadrose]

One of the interesting perils of living in Seattle is that every sort of disease comes through our international airport, frequently thanks to religious missionaries and homeschool groups.

They come in from their overseas missions, do a couple of days sightseeing, and return home, then start showing symptoms of measles or whatever, after having spread their virulence through the city. And of course Seattle is lousy with anti-vaxxers, so it's easy to get it spreading.

I begin to think that people who won't vaccinate should voluntarily quarantine after travel.