Parents who do not lead children to be vaccinated may be jailed for six months.
Photo: BBC
Ugandan President
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni signed a decree imposing criminal liability for parents refusing to vaccinate children,
writes the BBC. In addition, the decree prohibits children who do not have a vaccination card with them from attending school.
')
In this country (and not only this), many religious parents refuse to vaccinate children. As a result, polio and meningitis are returned to the country — diseases that, if not killing a child, leave him disabled for life. According to WHO estimates, because of this problem, 70 children out of 1000 die before reaching the age of five.
About 3% of children in Uganda are not vaccinated. Active campaigns are being held in the country, the purpose of which is to draw public attention to the problem, to convince parents to vaccinate children. But it helps a little - in some cases children are simply hidden when doctors come to the village who are responsible for vaccination.
There was even a religious cult, whose supporters reject vaccination, as a product of the devil (called the cult "666"). The cult originated in several remote regions of Uganda, but now its supporters have appeared throughout the country.
PS Perhaps the news does not seem so important, but parents and more developed countries refuse to vaccinate children than Uganda. In the CIS countries, the number of "anti-vaccinations", parents who oppose vaccines, is also increasing, and quite quickly.