Health Minister Milan Kujundzic said on Friday that serious measures were being taken to prevent a measles epidemic from spreading in Dubrovnik, where two new suspected cases of measles have been reported.

Since May 25 four cases of measles have been reported in the southern city of Dubrovnik.

“Anything with more than three cases of infection can be called an epidemic. That is a relatively small number, but what is concerning is the low vaccination rate in Dubrovnik County, and there is objectively a risk (of epidemic) present,” Kujundzic told reporters in Zagreb.

“We are now conducting additional rounds of vaccination, immunoglobulin therapy, and isolation measures, and I believe that the epidemic will not spread. However, there is cause for concern,” said Kujundzic.

He noted that the vaccination rate in Dubrovnik County had increased by 30 percent over the past year, but that it was still not sufficient, which was why campaigns were under way to encourage vaccination.

“People do not vaccinate their children due to fear and that way they harm their children, as well as all the others who could become indirectly infected,” Kujundzic said, adding that measures of coercion such as fines or denying children that have not been vaccinated admission to public kindergartens would not help improve the situation.

People should be primarily educated about the fact that they put their children’s health at risk by not having them vaccinated, he said.

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