Hundreds of children in a northern Israeli town have not been vaccinated for measles, Israel Hayom learned over the weekend.
Israel is currently fighting one of the worst measles outbreaks it has known in decades. Some 2,000 Israelis have contracted the disease so far in 2018 and in late October, an 18-month-old toddler died of measles in Jerusalem.
The outbreak has underscored a myriad of failures by the Health Ministry, which has been unable to properly deal with the growing trend of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, thus placing all those around them at risk of catching the highly contagious disease.
Data obtained by Israel Hayom shows that in the northern town of Pardes Hanna alone, 500 out of the community's 600 school-age children have not been vaccinated for measles, and the Health Ministry has done nothing about it.
Doctors, nurses, teachers and school administrators continued to protest over the ministry's incompetence in combating the phenomenon of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.
"It's really tragic how for years the Health Ministry did nearly nothing against these parents, did not even encourage vaccination via a public awareness campaign," a Health Ministry official told Israel Hayom.
"Until the latest outbreak of measles, there were many places in Israel where kids were simply not vaccinated and the Health Ministry did nothing for years."
The issue of the Health Ministry's failure in the matter has not escaped the State Comptroller's Office, which as far back as 2014 has warned that the ministry was doing nothing to counter vaccine refusal.
Pardes Hanna school administrators have urged the parents to vaccinate their children.
"As school principals, we do not have any formal authority to set policy on this issue, but we urge you to be vigilant about signs of disease," a letter circulated to the parents reads.
"There are more than 600 children and more than 100 staff members in Pardes Hanna, and all of us also come in contact with at-risk populations such as pregnant women, children with allergies, infants and the elderly, as well as people who are ill, who constitute an at-risk group in and of itself."
A statement by the Health Ministry said, "Israel Hayom has chosen to interpret reality in a way that is detached from reality. Israel's immunization rates are among the highest in the world, thanks to the Health Ministry's long-standing activities.
"Pockets of resistance to vaccines exist all over the world, and Israel deals with them exceptionally well. The latest outbreak has been traced back to outbreaks abroad and populations that are not registered with the Interior Ministry, which the Health Ministry has no access to.
"The Health Ministry has taken unprecedented action to increase immunization rates. We are proud of the ministry's teams for their impressive dedication to this cause," the statement said.
