Debates over the vaccination law continue as Romania continues to face the measles epidemic that is making more and more victims. Dr. Gindrovel Dumitra, coordinator of the Vaccinology Group, the National Society of Family Medicine (SNMF), clarified the latest version of the draft Vaccination Law.
She explained, for News.ro, that parents can go to court, after paying several fines, some even between 5,000 and 10,000 lei, if they oppose vaccination when the child enters the community, without a medical reason proven by documents. Children, however, will be accepted into education, even if parents refuse counseling for immunization and ultimately vaccination. However, they will be withdrawn from public schools during the period when the unit is facing an epidemic, precisely for their protection.
“The backbone of this law is information. The parent will have the right to be informed. When the mother is pregnant, she will receive the first information from the family doctor regarding the vaccines that will be administered in the maternity ward. Then, at one month, when the mother practically shows up to take the assessment exam that we do in the preventive consultations, she will receive an informational package that will be built by the Ministry of Health together with the Technical Group for the Coordination of the Vaccination Activity.
This package will contain standard information about the vaccination schedule, so when the child needs to get vaccinated at 2 months, 4 months, 11 months and 12 months, it depends on what the vaccination schedule will be like in the future, because it can be changed in depending on the epidemiological context and the vaccines that are available on the market and so on “, explained the coordinator of the Vaccinology Group – National Society of Family Medicine (SNMF).
The father receives, at each vaccination, information about the vaccine to be administered and about possible side effects.
“The father has the right to refuse. The first time, a month later, the painters signed that he took note of the schedule. If he agrees with the vaccination, the parent will not sign anything because the agreement is presumed. The father will only sign if he decided not to vaccinate him “, says the doctor.
The case of the parent who refused the vaccination is notified to the County Vaccination Commission, respectively to the Vaccination Commission of Bucharest, as the case may be.
“If he signs that refusal form, then the family doctor is obliged to inform the County Commission. At that moment the parent will also enter an information circuit. The County Commission will summon that parent with a cadence once in a while. three months. The obligation of the parent, by law, is to appear for information. The parent will be fined only if he does not appear for information. If he comes to inform, he does not receive a fine.
Then the fine is progressive. That is, if he did not show up at the first information, he will receive a warning. If he refuses the second information, he will receive a fine between 1,000 and 2,500 lei, which will be applied to these values and to the next absences, ie it will not increase “, added the coordinator of the vaccinology commission.
The fine increases if he refuses to be vaccinated after the child enters school
The parent receives a fine of between 5,000 and 10,000 lei if he refuses vaccination after the child enters the community.
“Entry into the community involves three types of certificates for as many distinct situations: a certificate from the family doctor stating that the child is vaccinated according to age; to present a certificate stating that it has a contraindication to vaccination issued by the commission and in this context must be protected from other children around, and the third option, to appear at the county commission where to receive a recovery schedule for vaccination, being legally obliged to complete the immunization within one year.
For example, if the child is taken to the community for the first time in grade zero, then by grade I he will recover the vaccination, but not with all vaccines, but only with those required for this age, MMR, tetravalent and Hepatitis B. use the hexavalent vaccine because it is given for up to two years. That is, in the first stage he makes three injections at once, two in a month and two more in another six months after the last administration.
If the parent does not go to the vaccination now or to the county commission, now that maximum fine of 5,000-10,000 lei is applied. because at this moment it is no longer just a problem of his child, but a problem of the whole community. Then, if until 18 months after entering the community, the child has not started the vaccination scheme, the county commission is obliged to inform the County Directorate for Child Protection, for medical negligence. Once notified to the Directorate for Child Protection, other bodies intervene, the court. She decides“, explained doctor Gindrovel Dumitra.
“The decision not to vaccinate the child is an attack on his future”
In no case is the problem that the child is not received in the community because of the parent who refused to immunize the child.
“The parent is obliged by all laws around the world to protect his child to ensure his best health. As long as vaccination is recognized with incontrovertible evidence that it brings maximum benefits both for the individual and especially for the community, At this point, the decision not to vaccinate the child is an attack on the future of the child that the parent unconsciously produces.The vaccination law has a correct principle here, the child is not to blame for the parents’ decision.
Children leave school only in one case, when there is an epidemic, because they, not being vaccinated, are in danger. The child who cannot be vaccinated due to health problems must be protected by the community. Then the MMR vaccine given at one year, 90 percent of children develop the title of protective antigen, 10 percent do not, so it will be vaccinated again at five years, so the percentage increases to 99 percent, but still remain 1 percent and these 1 percent must be protected, “the doctor added.
“Antivaccines, people who had the misfortune to receive some information that activated their fears”
Regarding vaccinators, the doctor says that there are some people who received some information that gave them fear reactions.
“We have become accustomed to making anti-vaccines a target, I have a different opinion about these people. There are some people who have had the misfortune to receive some information that, at some point, triggered some fearful reactions. Or maybe they have “It’s one in a million. It’s a lady, an actress, who always comes up with her own child. She’s making a fundamental mistake. Maybe that child is that 1 in a million who suffered from the vaccine, say.”
If that child has suffered from the vaccine, that child will not be vaccinated because he or she will receive a certificate of contraindication to the vaccine. The law provides protection by vaccinating children around them, so that they are not at risk in the community. By what his mother does, he diminishes the protective wall around the child in the future “, continued the doctor Gindrovel Dumitra.
Not every doctor can vaccinate, but only the certified vaccinator.
“Any doctor who wants to vaccinate is required to register in the National Electronic Vaccination Register. The law defines the notion of vaccinator. Now, unfortunately, there are 30 percent of children in the register whose vaccination route is unknown. The state must take care to have correct data to know what is the risk of an epidemic in any county.Or this can only be seen in a unitary system.But this unitary system can only be an electronic register.I think it could work a bit “In six months, all children eligible for vaccination will be entered in this register. The vaccinologist will take a code from the DSP and write down all the vaccinations made,” the family doctor continued.
Doctors receive extra money for each vaccinated child. What happens to doctors who refuse vaccination
The doctor who refuses to vaccinate a child who has no contraindications for immunization will not be able to be a vaccinating doctor.
“If he is a family doctor or neonatologist who is required by the national immunization program to vaccinate and will not do so, if he transmits information that is not scientifically correct and is not consistent with current scientific evidence, “If the code of ethics is violated, then he will receive the sanctions imposed by this code,” the doctor added, adding that through the Vaccination Law, vaccinologists will receive extra money for each immunized child.
Parents will be required to report post-vaccination side effects, which will then be woven into the electronic registry.
“The parent who has noticed an adverse reaction after vaccination is obliged to notify the family doctor, he will indicate the measures that can be taken. At the same time the doctor will report the adverse reaction in RENV. This will quantify the side effects. At the same time, the family doctor can remove the child on his list if the parent refuses the immunization I’m talking about a child’s right to health If the parent doesn’t trust me as a doctor and what I’m saying for his child’s health, I can definitely tell him I’m taking him out of on my list. If he doesn’t trust me, what can I do? “, the doctor specified.
The Minister who does not get a vaccine for citizens, judged for negligence or abuse of office
The minister who endangers the lives of children because he does not insure the vaccine stocks can be tried for negligence or abuse of office.
“The minister can be sanctioned if there were no vaccines because of him, there were delays. And at this moment this falls under the incidence of the Ministerial Accountability Law, which says that there is a certain responsibility. For several years, in Romania we have had problems with the supply of vaccines and no one has been sanctioned. The new law will designate very clearly who is the person who must notify the law enforcement bodies for non-compliance with this obligation.
Let’s say that at a given moment a family doctor does not have a vaccine. At that moment, the county commission is the first to notify the national commission. The law provides for a one-year stock and multi-annual contracts in order to prevent as much as possible the possibility of syncope in the vaccine supply. Now we have only gone through a measles epidemic, God forbid a polio epidemic occurs, diphtheria returns.
These are very serious diseases that cost us our lives. And this is unacceptable. Any minister who allows or creates the conditions under which these diseases can return must be held accountable, as well as the team in the ministry and the DSP who allow this. The Minister of Health is obliged to ensure financing and the existence of stocks and at the same time he must check once every six months if the subordinates have done their duty. The Minister is sanctioned by the law of ministerial responsibility. It can lead to negligence or abuse of office. The Technical Group for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities can accuse the minister of not doing his job. And so any of the institutions provided by law with attributions “, the doctor also explained.
It’s a long way to go until the Vaccination Act comes into force
The vaccination law could be fully operational within two years from the time it is approved.
“County commissions must be set up, members of these commissions must be trained to know how to recover children from vaccination. The law may come into force in 2018, but we do not have vaccine stocks, we do not have people ready to know how to act with a hesitant parent and with a resistant one.
We have not amended the Procurement Law. We do not have to go to the situation where due to the problems of purchasing a vaccine, the vaccination rate has decreased by 60 percent. Before 1990, it was 99 percent, “said Gindrovel Dumitra, coordinator of the SNMF vaccinology group.
– .
