86.4% of Malaysian adolescents completed their vaccinations in 2016

There has been a worldwide anti-vaccination movement using the argument that vaccinations cause autism. In Malaysia, vaccination also has issues of its own. It is rumoured that vaccines contain porcine DNA, which is non-Halal.

Nevertheless, the Health Ministry has come out with a statement to clarify that all vaccines administrated by the government hospitals are 100% halal.

On the other hand, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Wan Azizah said that vaccination for children are not mandatory. However, her ministry will be collaborating with the Health Ministry to encourage more parents to vaccinate their children.

Despite the debate, the child vaccination rate in Malaysia is on the positive trend, according to a survey conducted by the Health Ministry. In 2016, 86.4% of Malaysia adolescent between the age of 12 to 13 months old were verified to have completed their vaccination regime.

Meanwhile, 8.9% and 4.5% of Malaysian adolescents went through self-reported complete vaccination and incomplete vaccination respectively. Only 0.1% of adolescents have not been vaccinated.

Among all the states and Federal Territories in Malaysia, the areas of great concern are Pahang and Negeri Sembilan, where the rate of vaccinated adolescents are 0.5% and 0.4% accordingly.

But in terms of adolescents with complete vaccination, developed areas in Malaysia have the lowest percentage, with Penang at 81.7%, Selangor at 82.6% and Kuala Lumpur at 83.8%. However, those areas have high percentage in the category of self-reported complete vaccination. This may indicate that those locations have higher number of parents that preferred to send their children to private health institutions for vaccination.