French parents will have to take their children to be vaccinated starting in 2018, under plans announced by the country's new prime minister.

During an address to Parliament on Tuesday, Édouard Philippe, who serves as prime minister under new liberal president Emmanuel Macron, said that vaccines for young children that are unanimously recommended by health authorities will become mandatory next year, Le Figaro reported.

Philippe cited Louis Pasteur, the French chemist who pioneered lab-manufactured vaccines by experimenting on his chickens.

"Children are still dying of measles," Philippe said. "In the homeland of Pasteur that is not admissable." A measles outbreak throughout much of Europe during the early part of this year hit France badly.

Three vaccines, for diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis, are already mandatory in France. Vaccines that are currently only recommended but would become compulsory under the new law include polio, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, pneumococcus and meningococcus C.

French Minister for Health Agnès Buzyn told Le Parisien in June that the government was considering the policy.

"I hate coercion, it is not in my temperament. But there is an urgency," she said at the time. "There are times when obligation is a good thing to allow society to evolve."

In May, the Italian government made a similar ruling: In Italy, children must be vaccinated against 12 common illnesses. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that vaccinations had been decreasing, partly because of a "spread of anti-scientific theories." If children are not vaccinated by the time they start school at age 6, the Italian government will fine them, the BBC reported.

Health professionals are concerned about the limited vaccination rates across the West. In France, as well as in Britain, America and elsewhere, vaccinations for measles are below the 95 percent level that stops the disease from spreading, according to The Economist.</s>France has announced its intentions to make 11 vaccines mandatory for children in the face of record low confidence in its population that vaccines can be trusted.

The French website The Local reports that in a parliamentary address on Tuesday, France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe declared the government’s plan to implement the mandatory requirements, adding eight vaccines to the mandatory list that already included the vaccines for polio, tetanus and diphtheria.

The move is supported in France’s medical community as a pathway to ensure that immunity remains at acceptable levels in the face of an alarming resurgence in diseases that were all but eliminated a decade ago. According to Santé publique France, a governmental public health monitoring agency in France, measles has been of of these resurgent diseases, with more than 24,000 cases since 2008 which led to 34 cases in neurological complications and 10 deaths.

In a letter from 200 doctors supporting this measure, the importance of protecting the vulnerable was emphasized. The group’s endorsement was in part motivated “because vaccination is not only a personal choice with benefits only for the person vaccinated but aims to protect the population, especially children, the elderly or frail.”</s>Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced in an address to the French Parliament that vaccines unanimously recommended by health authorities will become mandatory starting next year, Newsweek reports.

In Italy, where more than 2,500 cases of the measles have been reported this year, vaccines for 12 diseases were made obligatory by the government in May.

Vaccinations have been at the center of a tense debate over the years. While many parents believe them to be a personal choice, others see it as a public health crisis when children aren’t vaccinated.

“Children are still dying of measles,” Philippe said in his speech, according to Newsweek. “In the homeland of [Louis] Pasteur that is not admissible,” he added, referring to the French chemist who was a pioneer in vaccine use.

The World Health Organization issued a warning in March about the growing measles epidemic in Europe. In January alone, over 500 measles cases were reported across the region.

Measles is a leading cause of death for young children, and worldwide 134,200 people perished from the disease in 2015, according to WHO.

After steady progress toward eliminating the disease, “it is of particular concern that measles cases are climbing in Europe,” Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO’s regional director for the continent, said in the press release. “Today’s travel patterns put no person or country beyond the reach of the measles virus. Outbreaks will continue in Europe, as elsewhere, until every country reaches the level of immunization needed to fully protect their populations.”

Although the policies for mandatory vaccinations cover a wide range of contagious diseases, the measles epidemic has been at the forefront of the conversation.

“When you see a fraying of community immunity, the contagious diseases are the ones that ... start to come back,” Dr. Paul Offrit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told HuffPost. “And the number one disease that is the canary in the coal mine is the measles.”

Although numerous studies have shown that vaccines are safe and effective, many parents still believe a fabricated study published in 1998 that claimed vaccines caused autism. Concerns persist even though the doctor behind the fake study, Andrew Wakefield, was exposed and lost his license.

“It’s not okay that France experiences the level of outbreaks that it does,” said Offrit, who worked on the team that developed the rotavirus vaccination for over 20 years. “Begging the question, is it your inalienable right as a French citizen to allow your child to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection?”

Although the United States does not have a federal mandate on vaccinations, most states have imposed vaccination requirements for measles, mumps and rubella for school-aged children.</s>Parents in France will be legally obliged to vaccinate their children from 2018, the government has announced.

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said it was “unacceptable” that children are “still dying of measles” in the country where some of the earliest vaccines were pioneered.

Three childhood vaccines, for diphtheria, tetanus and polio, are currently mandatory in France. Others, including those against hepatitis and whooping cough, are simply recommended.

Announcing the policy, Mr Philippe evoked the name of Louis Pasteur, the French biologist who made breakthroughs in disease research and developed the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax in the 19th century.</s>France have passed a new law that will require all children to receive a mandatory vaccination from 2018 onwards, or face being taken away from their parents.

Parents in France will be legally obliged to vaccinate their children with dangerous chemicals, following in the footsteps of Italy where children can be forcibly removed from their parents if they remain unvaccinated when they start school.

Independent.co.uk reports: French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said it was “unacceptable” that children are “still dying of measles” in the country where some of the earliest vaccines were pioneered.

Three childhood vaccines, for diphtheria, tetanus and polio, are currently mandatory in France. Others, including those against hepatitis and whooping cough, are simply recommended.

Announcing the policy, Mr Philippe evoked the name of Louis Pasteur, the French biologist who made breakthroughs in disease research and developed the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax in the 19th century.

He said all the vaccines which are universally recommended by health bodies – 11 in total – would be compulsory.

The move follows a similar initiative in Italy, which recently banned non-vaccinated children from attending state schools.

The World Health Organisation has warned of major measles outbreaks spreading across Europe despite the availability of a safe, effective vaccine.

Anti-vaccine movements, whose followers are known as anti-vaxxers, are believed to have contributed to low rates of immunisation against the highly contagious disease in a number of countries.

A recent survey found more than three out of 10 French people don’t trust vaccines, with just 52 per cent of participants saying the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.

There were 79 cases of measles reported in France in the first two months of 2017, mostly due to an outbreak of 50 cases in the north-eastern Lorraine region, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2016, more than 24,000 cases of measles were declared in France, official figures show. Of these, around 1,500 had serious complications and there were 10 deaths.

Vaccination is not mandatory in Britain, and around 24,000 children a year in England are not immunised against measles, mumps and rubella.

Fear surrounding the combined inoculation for the three infectious diseases, known as the MMR vaccine, stems in part from a discredited study claiming to show a link between the jab and autism.

The paper, published in medical journal The Lancet nearly 20 years ago by disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield, led to a heavy fall in uptake among parents at the time, but exhaustive scientific research has now disproved the theory.

Two children in the UK have died of measles since 2006, and in 2013 a young man from Wales died of the disease – all a “waste of life,” Dr Farah Jameel told doctors at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual meeting last month.

The BMA is calling for evidence to be submitted to the UK Government on “the potential advantages and disadvantages of childhood immunisation made mandatory under the law”.

Beatrice Lorenzin, the Italian health minister, has said falling vaccination rates in the country was “an emergency generated by fake news” and 12 vaccines would be compulsory for schoolchildren aged up to 16.

Cases of measles rose more than fivefold across Italy in April compared to the same month last year, according to National Health Institute figures.

This alarming resurgence of the disease has been blamed on the anti-vaccination stance of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), which took a quarter of the vote in the country’s 2013 general election.

The price of a packet of cigarettes in France will also rise from seven to 10 euros (around £6.10 to £8.70) in another public health measure announced by Mr Philippe</s>Eleven vaccinations for young children will be made compulsory in France from 2018. A "short term evil for the long term good", doctors say.

During June, new health minister Agnes Buzyn announced that she wanted to make 11 vaccines compulsory for young children.

Three vaccines: diptheria, tetanus and polio are already obligatory but from 2018 these will be joined by eight more: whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitus B, influenza, pneumonia and meningitis C.

At present these vaccinations are only recommended by the state and the decision whether or not to inoculate a child is left in the hands of the parents, who are often swayed by theories and scare stories about health risks of certain vaccines.

Philippe said in his speech on Tuesday that "diseases that we believed to be eradicated are developing once again, children are dying of the measles in France and in the country of Pasteur, that is unacceptable."

"Vaccination isn't only a personal choice that solely benefits the person who is vaccinated" but "it aims to protect the population, in particular children, the elderly and fragile," wrote the health professionals.

"Systematic vaccination has eradicated diseases, such as Smallpox " the text noted, "but the reduction in the vaccination coverage rate of the population has led to the resurgence of certain diseases such as measles."

But not everyone in France has been positive about vaccinations in recent years and many are unlikely to support the government's move.

In a survey published in October, just 69 percent of people said they had confidence in vaccinations, representing the lowest level since 2012.

People who are anti-vaccinations stress the alleged dangers involved, highlighting the use of additives like aluminium in some jabs.

They have also accused laboratories of putting profitability ahead of the health of children.

But those doctors who signed the appeal in favour of the vaccinations are shocked and insist the false information must be fought.

"We are astonished to see that 41 percent of the French say they are wary of vaccinations", said François Chast, head of pharmacology at Paris hospitals.

"It is urgent to fight the speeches of anti-science and anti-vaccination lobbies that play on fear, they show nothing and rely on a few very rare side effects to discredit vaccines that save millions of lives," he said.</s>Whooping cough! Mumps! The names seem archaic, the afflictions of suffering youngsters in some old-time children’s book. Yet here we are, experiencing regular outbreaks of easily preventable diseases, so it should come as no surprise that Canada’s vaccination rates are unacceptable.

A quick recap: The aim of mass vaccinations is “herd immunity,” ensuring that a base level of the population is resistant to a disease in order to contain its spread.

Measles, for example, has a herd immunity threshold of about 95 per cent. The exact number depends on a variety of factors, but doctors begin to lose confidence in their ability to control the measles virus when 6 per cent of people dismiss or reject the needle.

It should be an easy target to hit: The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine has been available for 64 years. But Statistics Canada released its new childhood immunization coverage report last week, and as of 2015, just 89 per cent of two-year-olds were up to date on their MMR shot.

Only 77 per cent of two year olds were up to date for pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, which has a threshold of about 92 per cent.

I’m not here to debate a routinely debunked, 20-year-old report that questioned the value of these medicines. There’s no time: Whooping cough hit Manitoba in January, Toronto saw mumps in February and Nova Scotia dealt with measles in the spring.

I have a beloved cousin, 31, undergoing chemotherapy after a double mastectomy. Two of her children aren’t yet four and so haven’t completed their immunization schedules yet.

This isn’t a joke: Certain people truly can’t get vaccinated. So, with vaccinations down in rich countries, the issue has become what to do with those who refuse their responsibilities.

Which brings us to France, which has had enough of school children dying of measles. There’s a measles outbreak across Europe, and between 2008 and 2016, the country saw 24,000 cases, including 10 childhood fatalities, as the MMR vaccination rate dropped to 75 per cent.

This past Tuesday, Prime Minister Éduoard Philippe announced that eight vaccines, including MMR, will become mandatory for public-school students as of 2018. That makes a total of 11, since protection against diphtheria, polio and tetanus were already required.

No vaccines are mandatory anywhere in Canada, though the issue comes up regularly. Last year, both the Edmonton Catholic school board and a Fort McMurray father of a toddler with brain cancer requested that the Alberta government consider the matter, which it rejected even as it acknowledged that vaccination rates are lower than acceptable.

Ontario and New Brunswick require proof of immunizations before school enrolment, but both provinces allow certain exceptions. In May, the Ontario government passed a bill that will require abstaining parents to undergo mandatory education on the science of immunization, though it’s not yet determined when it will come into effect.

The bill was introduced by Ontario Minister of Health Eric Hoskins in spring of 2016, at a time when Whistler, B.C., was undergoing a mumps outbreak. In an interview in 2016, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, Perry Kendall, expressed discomfort with the idea of mandatory education, let alone compulsory needles.

Opining that a “carrot was better than a stick,” Dr. Kendall said that any sort of pressure might solidify the fears of people wary of vaccines. He also said that inoculations “are a victim of their own success”: Because herd immunity was so reliable for so long, we’ve become lax about the need to get shots and the risks of these diseases.

I think that statement actually speaks to the benefit of giving people a little prod: My own diligence about the flu shot came after realizing that my laziness put others at risk. I’d like to believe that most people are just busy, not negligent, and some mild encouragement would go a long way.

As for the others, government-mandated needles would definitely be drastic, as would keeping students out of school because of their parents’ stubbornness. In this age of redebating basic science, it’s a less medieval choice than watching a child die of whooping cough.</s>According to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 2017 is shaping up to see a big increase in measles infections and deaths. “Preliminary information for February indicates that the number of new infections is sharply rising,” the WHO wrote.

The major reason for the increase? Vaccination rates around the world have stalled due to anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories.

“Over the past five years, measles vaccine coverage around the world has stagnated at around 78 percent,” Dr. Seth Berkley from Gavi, a nonprofit vaccine alliance, told NPR. “That in combination with the European outbreak is worrisome.” To stop measles outbreaks the worldwide vaccination rate needs to be at 90% to 95%.

The decrease in vaccination rates has hit France especially hard. Between 2008 and 2016, the country has reported over 24,000 cases of measles, including 10 deaths. A major reason for the outbreak is the French are the biggest vaccine skeptics in the world. A recent study found that 41% of French people disagreed with the phrase “vaccines are safe.” So to combat this major public health concern, France is making them mandatory.

Under the new law, starting next year, all French children must be vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis, polio, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, pneumococcus, and meningococcus C. “Children are still dying of measles,” Édouard Philippe, France’s prime minister under president Emmanuel Macron, said. “In the homeland of Pasteur that is not admissible.”

France’s Minister of Health and Solidarity Agnès Buzyn understands that forcing parents to vaccinate their children is a controversial move but believes it’s necessary. “I hate coercion, it is not in my temperament. But there is an urgency,” she told Le Parisien in French, later adding, “There are times when obligation is a good thing to allow society to evolve.”</s>Mavs and Huskies to Face-Off on 2018 HDM</s>Cancer vaccines — which are intended to help patients fight cancer by enlisting the individuals' own immune systems to attack cancer cells —showed promise in two small new studies.

In both studies, researchers used experimental cancer vaccines to treat patients who had the deadly skin cancer melanoma. And in both studies, tumors completely disappeared in more than half of the patients after they were given their cancer vaccines. The other patients were given another type of treatment that was aimed at further boosting the ability of the individuals' immune systems ' ability to fight cancer, and in some of those cases, these patients' tumors also disappeared.

Researchers are developing similar vaccines against other cancers as well, including a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma, kidney cancer, blood cell cancers and ovarian cancer, said Dr. Catherine Wu, a physician-scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led one of the new studies. "Many other cancers might benefit from this approach," Wu said. [5 Things You Must Know About Skin Cancer]

Ideally, any cancer treatment would target cancerous cells while sparing healthy cells. In the vaccine approach, scientists want to develop vaccines that carry molecules seen only on cancerous cells. Such vaccines could help the immune system recognize such cells as harmful, prompting the system to enlist its warriors, including T cells and other defender cells, to seek out and eliminate cancers.

In the new studies, two separate research teams used two different kinds of vaccines to attack melanoma. The scientists detailed their findings online today (July 5) in two studies in the journal Nature.

Melanomas often have mutations resulting from the exposure of skin to ultraviolet rays. Such mutations can result in abnormal proteins seen nowhere else in the human body and known as neoantigens, which can prove useful targets for vaccines, said Dr. Cornelius Melief, a physician-scientist at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, who did not take part in either study.

In one of the studies, Wu and her colleagues vaccinated six patients who had previously undergone tumor-removal surgery. The vaccine they used was personalized for each patient; the researchers analyzed the DNA of cancerous and healthy cells from each person to identify tumor-specific mutations and their associated neoantigens.

Wu and her colleagues then used computer models to predict which neoantigens might be the best for immune cells to recognize. The scientists next gave the patients vaccines containing up to 20 neoantigens specific to each patient's cancer.

The researchers found that the vaccines were safe and triggered immune responses. Four patients showed no sign of the cancers recurring after 25 months. The other two patients, who had progressive forms of melanoma, were later treated with so-called checkpoint-blockade therapies, which block the mechanisms by which cancer sometimes suppresses a person's immune system. After this additional treatment, both patients underwent complete tumor regression. [Top 10 Cancer-Fighting Foods]

"We were delighted to see a strong and consistent response among the six patients we treated," Wu told Live Science. "Vaccines can focus and mobilize the body's standing army of T cells."

In another study, Dr. Ugur Sahin at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University and Biopharmaceutical New Technologies Corporation, both in Mainz, Germany, and his colleagues analyzed the cancers of 13 patients, choosing up to 10 mutations per person to create vaccines tailored to the patients' cancers. These vaccines were made of RNA molecules, the compounds that encode the instructions used to make proteins such as neoantigens.

Sahin and his colleagues found that the vaccines boosted immune responses in all of the patients. Eight of the 13 patients remained free of tumors after 23 months. The remaining five had tumor relapses; however, one of these five experienced complete tumor regression after receiving checkpoint-blockade therapy.

Wu and her colleagues noted that treatment-related adverse events consisted of mild flu-like symptoms, injection site reactions, rash and fatigue. Sahin and his colleagues noted no serious adverse events.

Both studies were phase I clinical trials, meaning they were carried out with a small number of patients to test the safety of the treatment, and find the best dose of a new treatment with the fewest side effects. "These are small-scale studies that need to be confirmed with larger numbers of patients," Melief said.

Still, "these are exciting times," Melief said. "I think we are in for game changers in cancer."
France plans to make vaccines mandatory for children in 2018.