Doctors call for compulsory jabs

The head of Attica’s union of freelance pediatricians on Thursday called for a more aggressive response to the growing anti-vaccination movement in the wake of warnings by the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (KEELPNO) of a spike in measles.

“If decisions are not made at a government level compelling parents to produce certificates of vaccination in order to enroll their children at school, the story of measles and other diseases that are prevented by vaccinations will be repeated,” Constantinos Daloukas said in a letter to the media.

Also Thursday, the head of the Hellenic Pediatric Society, Professor Emeritus Andreas Constantopoulos, said that an estimated 350,000 children in Greece have not been inoculated against the disease.

KEELPNO had recorded 196 cases of measles from May up until Thursday afternoon, 30 of which appeared in the past week.