Background: Following the death of two unvaccinated siblings, eleven months and two years old of diphtheria in June 2016, the Ministry of Health Malaysia is now emphasizing the need to enforce compulsory childhood vaccination in Malaysia. Vaccination is the main health intervention to reduce child mortality. Despite the success of vaccination, there has been an increase in the number of vaccine hesitancy, especially among parents. Research has identified many factors associated with parental vaccine refusal and hesitancy toward childhood vaccination, which varies from religious, medical as well as personal belief factors. This complicates matters as childhood vaccination involves a balance between parents’ autonomy in deciding whether to vaccinate their children and the benefits to public health. Between parental autonomy in deciding to vaccinate their children and the benefits of vaccination to public health, which will prevail? Objective: This paper seeks to examine the ethical issues of enforcing compulsory vaccination for children in Malaysia. Results: if Malaysia were to come up with a legal framework of compulsory childhood vaccination, reference can be made to the legislated statutes in other countries, taking into account that some provisions such as exemptions to vaccination may be modified to suit it with Malaysian local circumstances and inhabitants. Conclusion: In improving health communication, aside from two way communications between parents and health officers, many other communication tools are also available. They include mass electronic media, digital media, print media, social mobilization and mobile technology.
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In-Text Citation: (Asari, Makhtar, Asuhaimi, & Pauzai, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Asari, K. N., Makhtar, M., Asuhaimi, F. A., & Pauzai, N. A. (2018). Compulsory Childhood Vaccination in Malaysia: Public Health versus Parental Autonomy. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(12), 1540–1548.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
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