Hi,

I currently live in Canada with my Wife and 10 month old baby. Vaccinations are mandatory and required in Canada as in many other countries, however if you do not wish to vaccinate your kids you can fill out Government forms that will exempt you and still be able to put your kids in public schools.

Anyone know any information regarding this Policy in Switzerland and if it varies in each Canton then which Cantons allow exemption?

many thanks.

Hi,

Switzerland generally has a low vaccination rate, especially in some locations. We received a survey from the BL Cantonal medical officer asking about our children's vaccination programme. I phoned him as they had been vaccinated in the UK. Apparently there is concern at the low vaccination rate, especially for measles. Apparently Solothurn has a low immunisation rate.

By implication, I don't think you need to be vaccinated to attend local schools, but it is certainly encouraged.

I've never heard of a general vaccination requirement in Switzerland. When I was in primary school, our whole class was supposed to go to the Schularzt (school doctor) to get examined and vaccinated. However, if the parents didn't want their children to go, they didn't have to.

There is a vaccination requirement for the Army, though.

dawiz

Three months ago I received a letter from my son's school with a tick box containing lots of different vaccinations.

I was asked simply to tick which ones I wished him to have. There were about 10 - 12 different ones!!

Vaccinations are not mandatory anymore!You are free to decide what you want to do in regards to your child.

As a parent when registering with your new Pediatrist, you will get a leaflet with so called 'Impfempfehlungen' ( recommendations about vaccination)

Sadly because some ppl thought,we have got rid of them childhood illnesses in Switzerland and because of some not so well funded scares (IMVHO) in connection with vaccinations,many children are NOT vaccinated anymore.
Ppl tend to forget that with the global village the world has become,the illnesses can be 'picked' up when in holidays and brought back to Switzerland.

This explains why there are often local outbreaks of one or the other of them childhood illnesses( I don't mean chickenpox here),and because the children are not vaccinated anymore, they then get the full blast of the illness!

But this is just my very personal opinion,because I used to work for many years in a health profession and that formed my opnion.

This is the only Federal governement site, I have found in english, about vaccinations in Switzerland.
If you understand french , then you can get more info on that site by choosing that language.

http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/mediz...x.html?lang=en


My children are all vaccinated and so far none has had any troubles in connection with the injections.

''off my soapbox'' now

It's a well-documented fact the herd immunity of measles is going down the drain and other children's diseases may follow. Too many parents are uninformed nowadays or think that their kid deserves a free ride. A relative of mine works at a school and she says that there's rarely an inspection where all the pupils of a class go to the school doctor.

In my opinion one should individually decide which vaccinations to take, but I can't understand general denial.

Ok, rant part over. Vaccinations aren't obligatory, with a few cantonal exceptions (according to this German website)

Tetanus: Freiburg
Diphtheria: Freiburg, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Ticino

The official national recommendation includes the following vaccinations:
Tetanus
Diphtheria
Polio
Pertussis
Haemophilus Influenzae (can cause meningitis)
Also: Measles-mumps-roseola and under certain circumstances Hepatitis B

I'm part of the medical troops and got free Di-Te, Polio and Hep B shots in the army, yay!

Hmm this is why TB is coming back into the UK.

All should be compulsory.

My two pennies worth anyway....

(Yes I did have the MMR when I was little, you're more likely to be hit by a bus than have problems.)

a teacher in St. Gallen recently died of TB. Also, there have been several cases of Polio in Switzerland last year - all of which were "imported" from India I believe - but still - not getting your Polio shot (actually, a shot isn't even required - the vaccination can be administered orally) is just careless IMHO.

dawiz

Saying that went to Egypt the other year, yellow fever jab was a pain in the arse.

I've also had hep b which is a weird one, bascially if it's going I'll have the jab.

Rather the pain for a few days than spend weeks in hospital or possibly death in some cases.

Why would anyone want to avoid vaccination?

Those that are mad or misinformed enough to want to do so, please collect the vaccine and send it to Africa - many there would like the chance of protecting their kids from measles, as an example, still a killer in many countries.

Apologies for the holier-than-thou attitude but some things in life are just too mind boggling stupid for words. Except those words. The ones I just used.

My kids had all these vaccinations ....Ok it looks a bit if I went overboard, but my kids were born in South Africa, then we moved to Canada, and the Canadians didn't trust the SA vaccination program , so my kids received more vaccines, the doctor in Canada has said it won't harm them, he just want to be safe.


Polio vaccine (oral) 1X + 3 boosters

B.C.G (vaccine against tuberculosis)

D.T.P (diphtheria, tetanus {lock-jaw} and whooping cough)

M.M.R (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) 2X

Hepatitis B 3X

Hib (vaccine against meningitis) 2X

I do see somewhat of an irony here. If we take the UK as an example we have large numbers of parents refusing vaccination (or making noise about it), while displaying paranoia about the safety of their children (follow link to recent thread, posted today). Just seems odd to me - grossly underestimating one risk, while overestimating the other!

Because there is evidence that there are dangers from vaccinations, that vaccines do not protect, but instead harm the person by lowering his immunity and have a general damaging effect on a persons overall health.

Do you really believe that injecting your child with poisons like mercury are good for your child's health?

This is a contentions issue and I don't want to get into an argument. But, if you are interested, "seek and you shall find" all the evidence that you need.

This is an example: http://detoxifynow.com/vaccination_dangers.html

Hmm, lets think about that. UK, vaccines available, kids don't die from measles. Africa, particularly low gdp countries where vaccines are out of the reach of government, kid dies every minute. 1-0 to vaccines I'd say.

Compared to what - Measles, TB, Rubella, Dipheria? Yep.

I think you do if you didn't where's the fun in that?

Poppycock.

Try this one:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...39/ai_91088422

Thank you for jumping in James.

I have learned from the past that when it comes to issues like vaccination, religion and any topic that has been heavily engrained into the minds of humans it's a lost cause to argue.

There is no way anyone will convince me to vaccinate my child and no way I can convince others to not vaccinate.

Sadly there is a lot of control perpetuated on earth through fear and other means. Many are accustomed to listening to their leaders and people in higher places. Doctors, scientist, news on TV and Government officials...... what ever they say is the truth. Why research anything, they say so, it must be true.

Cheers,
-Patrick

I'll try anyway. How about if Switzerland is hit with an nationwide outbreak of streptococcal meningitis and your neighbours kids get it and your school has multiple cases? Still wouldn't vaccinate?

Swissbob,

We need to examine different facts. While the article maybe true it doesn't justify why vaccines are needed.

The immune system is what keeps us safe from every possible diease and cancer. Many children lack proper nutrition, there isn't even safe drinking water. It's simply not a valid argument to say .... "see this kid died of measels and he didn't get the vaccination". Also the argument of I got a vaccination and I am fine is no valid either. If vaccines effected everyone in a negative way people would be onto it and would opt not to get vaccinated.

Officially Dentist and many reports and scientific tests are coming out now how damaging Mercury is. This is due to many cancers and deaths that are related to Dental fillings that used Mercury.

Vaccines contain Mercury and while you maybe fine. there are many possible side effects to vaccines and some don't show until 20 years later.

In any case there is real valid information out there. For most they are afraid of the truth. Just imagine you got your kids vaccinated and someone started presenting solid evidence on how bad they are, would you read it? Probably not, I mean what if you are wrong, how could yo ulive for the rest of your life. Simply put it's fear.

If you ask most people to think deeply about death and what happens, to simply analyze the possibilities most people rather ignore you and go back to watching TV. Again it comes back to fear, fear of the truth, fear of the unknown, fear of being lied to and misinformed.

People need leaders, people need direction, people want it easy and go along with everything that is shoved at them. There are so many examples, look at Aspartame. It's was very ironic seeing Michael J Fox on TV who has Parkinsons disease and in his hand he had a diet pepsi. Which contains aspartame that has been Proven to cause cancer and other dieseases.

Anyway I just wanted to type this out, had the time. As stated befor eI am not going try further to convince you, To each his own.

It would be fine to avoid vaccination if one were not living around other people...part of the reason to vaccinate is to protect the individual in question, but don't forget that the other reason is to prevent infected people from spreading disease. I get a flu shot every year, not because I thought I would die from the flu, but so I wouldn't inadvertently pass it to my parents or grandparents or someone else who could die from it. Your kid may not die from some contagious disease, but mine may. It's about living together in society and considering the impact we have on those around us.

Agree with the first bit completely - without water and proper nutrition disease will find it easier to take hold.

But the rest of the quote - let's try a very simple experiment.

Lets take some kids, vaccinate half and then expose them to measles. Now not all those unvaccinated will get it and only a % will actually die from it. But none of those vaccinated will get it, and none will die from it.

It's all a matter of where you see the most risk and whether you believe a vaccination program can irradicate a disease completely - like diphtheria back in the UK. If we hadn't vaccinated it would still be around, wouldn't it?

Agree completely. That is one reason, to drag the thread back to the original question, I find it surprising that the Swiss don't push vaccination harder.