Italy experiencing measles epidemic after drop in vaccinations

Italy has announced that it is experiencing a measles epidemic following a fall-off in vaccinations, as the United States issued a warning to visitors about the outbreak of the potentially fatal disease.

The Italian health ministry said on Wednesday there had been almost 1,500 registered cases of measles so far this year against some 840 in all of 2016 and some 250 in 2015.

“Italy and Romania have an epidemic at the moment,” Walter Ricciardi, president of the Higher Health Institute, said, adding that he understood why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory this week.

The Higher Health Institute says only around 85% of two-year-olds are being vaccinated against measles at present, well below the 95% threshold recommended by the World Health Organisation to block the illness.

Italy has become a battleground for vaccines, with tensions increasing in March following a measles outbreak.

The centre-left government has accused the populist, anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) of spreading concern among parents by questioning the safety of some vaccines and by loudly denouncing efforts to make vaccinations mandatory.

“Vaccinations have played a vital role in eradicating terrible illnesses … but nonetheless, they bring a risk associated with side-effects,” the M5S founder Beppe Grillo wrote in 2015, saying mandatory vaccination represented a gift for multinational pharmaceutical firms.

A leading M5S politician, Andrea Cecconi, suggested last month that the jump in measles cases might be part of a natural cycle for the illness rather than a preventable epidemic.

For children to attend state school in Italy, treatment with four vaccines — polio, diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B — is compulsory. Federico Gelli, a member of parliament for the ruling Democratic party, and a doctor and epidemiologist, aims to introduce in May a Bill making vaccinations compulsory for more diseases, including measles.

However, M5S, currently ahead in the opinion polls with elections to take place at some point before May next year, intends to oppose the proposals, arguing parents should have the freedom to choose. Some leaders of the party say it would revoke any obligation to vaccinate for all diseases if it wins.