Most in favour of compulsory child jabs

Nearly two out of three people believe parents should be obliged by law to have their children vaccinated for conditions such as measles, according to out latest readers' poll.

The current measles outbreak in west Cork has seen 64 cases to date and has resulted in four children being hospitalised.

The HSE believes the west Cork outbreak is linked to the reluctance of many parents in the area to have their children vaccinated.

The HSE says while this outbreak initially affected mainly unvaccinated teenagers, there is now some evidence of it spreading to children in younger age groups.

Dr John Delap, Chairman of the Irish College of Genersal Practitioners (ICGP), has said consideration should now be given to introducing compulsory immunisation. Read more on this here

We asked readers whether they believed that child vaccination should be compulsory.

Sixty three per cent said yes, 26% said no while 10% were unsure.

View the poll results and comments, and results of previous polls here

View our Childhood Immunisation Tracker here

[Posted: Tue 03/07/2012]