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The new law requires 10 mandatory vaccinations – and has proved controversial
Italian children were told not to go to school unless they could prove that they were properly vaccinated.
The deadline follows months of national debate on mandatory vaccination.
Parents risk a fine of up to € 500 (£ 425; $ 560) when they send their unvaccinated children to school. Children under six can be turned away.
The new law came in the context of outbreaks of measles cases – but the Italian authorities say vaccination rates have improved since it came into effect.
In Italy, under the so-called Lorenzin Law – named after the former Minister of Health who introduced it – children must receive a series of mandatory immunizations before they go at school. They include varicella, polio, measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.
Children under six will be excluded from nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccination under the new rules.
People between the ages of 6 and 16 can not be banned from school, but their parents are subject to a fine if they do not complete the compulsory vaccination cycle.
The deadline for certification was set for March 10, but after a previous delay, but as it fell a weekend, it was postponed to Monday.
"Now everyone has had time to catch up," Health Minister Giulia Grillo told La Repubblica newspaper.
She would have resisted the political pressure exerted by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini to extend the deadline.
Ms. Grillo said the rules were now simple: "No vaccine, no school".
Italian media reports that regional authorities are managing the situation in different ways.
In Bologna, local authorities sent letters of suspension to parents of some 300 children. In total, 5,000 children do not have documentation of their vaccine.
In other areas, no cases were reported, while others benefited from a grace period of a few days after the deadline.
Does the law have an effect?
The new law was passed to move Italy's free fall vaccination rates by less than 80% for the 95% target of the World Health Organization.
Monday – last day for parents to provide documents proving that their children had been properly vaccinated – Italian health authorities have published figures showing a national vaccination rate of 95% or very close for children born in 2015, depending on the vaccine in question. .
The 95% threshold is the starting point for "collective immunity" – when a sufficient number of people are vaccinated so that the spread of the disease becomes improbable, thus protecting those who can not be vaccinated.
This includes babies too young to be vaccinated themselves or those with medical conditions such as a compromised immune system.
Last month, an eight-year-old who was recovering from cancer could not go to school in Rome because of his weak immune system.
The child had spent months in treatment for leukemia, but he was at risk of infection because some of the school's students had not been vaccinated – many of them in the same class.
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Demonstrations against compulsory vaccination took place in Rome in 2017
The Lorenzin law, developed by the previous government, had a tumultuous birth. When the current coalition came to power, she announced that she would abandon mandatory vaccinations, even though she subsequently reversed her position.
The two populist parties in power have been accused of pursuing an anti-vaccination policy.
In a publication published Monday on Facebook, Ms. Grillo admitted that "it's a law that, at the time of approval, had been criticized for several reasons" – and said the law would be amended to include only vaccines needed on the basis of scientific data. The data.
Why do not parents vaccinate their children?
The anti-vaccination movement has grown worldwide in recent years, raising the alarm of the World Health Organization.
Andrew Wakefield, a long-time discredited article, was at the root of much of the fear, but rumors surrounding vaccination continued to spread, resulting in risks to public health as a number Insufficient people are immune to such diseases.
Mr. Wakefield was struck off the British medical register after fraudulently claiming the existence of a link between measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism and intestinal diseases in men. children.
He made this statement based on the experiences of only 12 children. No other study since has been able to replicate its results.
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