Parents are heeding the authorities’ advice and rushing to health centres to get children vaccinated against measles.

Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci told Times of Malta on Friday that following her letter to doctors on Wednesday, alerting them to outbreaks across Europe and urging more caution to avoid a similar situation locally, parents were calling at the immunisation centre in Floriana asking for their children to get the anti-measles jab.

Dr Gauci said staff at the centre had reported a sudden spike in requests for the vaccine.

Times of Malta reported on Friday many refused to have their children vaccinated, a decision described by an experienced consultant paediatrician as “irresponsible and illogical”.

Dr Gauci said the news that there was risk of an outbreak seemed to have jolted quite a few parents into reconsidering their decision not to vaccinate.

Others called health centres to enquire whether their children were at risk if they had not yet received the second dose.

“We had various concerned parents calling to ask if their young ones were at risk because they had only been given the first dose at 13 months,” Dr Gauci said, adding that, after the first injection, children were about 93% covered against the disease.

This rose to about 97% when the second dose was administered, when the children were three to four years old.

In view of the outbreak risk, some parents had even asked the health authorities whether it would be possible to vaccinate their children before they reached the indicated age. Dr Gauci said that was not possible, urging all to follow the national immunisation schedule.

On parents who still refused to have their children vaccinated and whether the authorities were in any way addressing this issue, Dr Gauci said that although everyone was free to make their own decisions, the authorities had a list of patients who were not vaccinated, and they were contacted from time to time.

“We always have a list of the cohort of children who have not been vaccinated and we make sure to get in touch with the parents to remind them about the importance of vaccinations.

“We do have some who change their minds and come to the clinics, but we also have others who simply refuse to give their children the vaccines,” explained Dr Gauci.

She called on parents not to seek information from social media, because it was not always correct, insisting that medical questions should always be directed to professionals.