Compulsory Vaccinations in France and Switzerland

[DeirdreB]

I realise that this is likely to be contraversial but here goes...

I have decided based on thorough research, not to vaccinate my children including Diptheria, Polio and Tetanus which I believe are compulsory in France for children wishing to attend Kindergarten and school. Our family is considering moving to Geneva and living in either France or Switzerland in the next couple of years.

If vaccinations are compulsory, this will have significant bearing on our decision to relocate.

Does anyone know if there are exceptions to the rules regarding vaccinations?

Deirdre

PS Please understand that I have my reasons for not vaccinating and have researched the pro and anti vaccination debate before coming to my decision and do not want to debate this on here. Thanks in advance!!

Deirdre, I've had an awful experience living here and think myself fortunate that we will be leaving at the end of the school year. OTOH, most of my dd's friends families think that they have a better standard of living and quality of life than in their home country. This is probably due to the main bread winner being a hedge fund manager or oil trader.

Not France/Switzerland, but we did send the children to school in the USA which has similar rules (although more required jabs, including chickenpox). We would have had to had a pediatrician (in the US) to see the children and write a report saying that for medical reasons they could not have vaccinations. The records were checked quite carefully before the children were allowed to go to school, and we had to produce proof (blood tests) that they had had chickenpox. I imagine that you'd need a letter from a doctor too (assuming that you are declining for medical reasons - I don't know about religious/ethical objections, but I have a feeling that there might be some workaround, I'm fairly sure there was something that some English people used moving over there).

However from a quick Google I'm not sure that vaccinations are required in Switzerland - there were a few reports that said Switzerland had the lowest vaccination rate in Europe, and they had a significant outbreak of Measles early last year (although that was centered around a Steiner school, so it might have had different entry requirements).

The other thing to be aware of is the differing rules for different cantons. I can find out about Zug for you, but if you intend to move to Basel for example, you may find that the requirements are different.

Kreecherlivesupstairs. Sorry to hear Switzerland is not good for you. I gave up work two years ago and have found living on one salary difficult at times so we are keen to ensure we are not worse off when we move. Being stoney broke in a foreign country away from friends and family does not sound like fun. Good luck with your next move - hope it's better!!

Deidre, I asked at dd's school yesterday, she did have to produce vaccination certs for MMR, DPT and Hepaptitis A+B, they were also keen to see that she'd been done against chicken pox and polio. Luckily for her at least, she had been. As I said before, it is an International school so I don't know the requirements of the canton for their 'local' schools, but I can find out.

I wonder if Homeopathic Vaccination Certificates would be sufficient as we could possibly consider these...

Have been in france for 4.5 years, and have been asked for vaccination certificates, but if we haven't had something like BCG, which I have been told is not compulsory anymore (?) then we have had no problems at all. dd1 was 2 years late for her school booster and no-one chased me for that either. Seems to be all down to me. Not sure about baby vaccines though, could depend on the local mayor.

BTW all my kids have only had baby jabs, dtp, 1st mmr jabs only, no bcg, no hep, no pox.

My dd has had virtually every vaccination known to man. On top of the normal Brit ones, she had polio, measles, TB and hep B at birth, literally within an hour of being born. She had hep A, rabies and jap enc when we moved to Thailand and since coming to Switzerland she's had two of the three tick borne encephalitis vaccinations. Due her next one soon.