Health authorities in Mendoza Province said on Friday they were taking legal action against 15 parents for failing to vaccinate their children, becoming the first province in Argentina to pursue civil complaints under national vaccination law.
The move comes amid falling immunisation rates and a resurgence of preventable diseases, said authorities.
“This is just the beginning,” Mendoza Provincial Health Minister Rodolfo Montero told AFP, adding that more parents would be targeted by lawsuits in the coming days.
The cases are being brought under National Law 27.491, which makes vaccination mandatory across Argentina, and in line with Resolution 2572 issued by the provincial Ministry of Health. The regulation sets out procedures for acting against those who fail to comply with the National Immunisation Schedule.
The parents have been summoned to attend a civil court hearing, where they will receive information about vaccination and be given 30 days to bring their children’s immunisations up to date.
Failure to comply could result in community service, fines of up to 336,000 pesos (US$230) or short periods of detention.
Vaccination in Argentina is mandatory by law and includes more than a dozen free vaccines administered from pregnancy through childhood, with booster doses required throughout adult life.
As a federal republic, Argentina grants its provinces a high degree of autonomy over health services.
In August, authorities in western Mendoza Province adopted new regulations allowing officials to identify and take action against parents who fail to meet vaccination requirements.
Under the new provisions, health workers and teachers are required to report non-compliant parents. Authorities said the objective was not punitive but to ensure broader immunisation coverage.
“The idea is not to persecute families and parents but to manage to immunise thousands of children whose vaccines are not up to date,” Montero said.
He said the tougher approach was already producing results, with three of the parents initially targeted by the lawsuits quickly updating their children’s vaccinations.
According to Montero, vaccine hesitancy in Mendoza is driven more by a laissez-faire attitude than by ideological or religious opposition to immunisation.
Nationally, Argentina’s overall vaccination rate stands at around 65 percent. Since 2024, no mandatory vaccine has reached the recommended 95 percent coverage target, and some immunisations have fallen to around half that level.
Mendoza performs above the national average, with vaccination coverage of roughly 85 percent, though still below the recommended threshold.
Authorities said they had been able to identify cases of non-compliance through school-based reporting mechanisms, including formal declarations submitted by parents who chose not to vaccinate their children, allowing for follow-up and legal action.
This year, Argentina recorded around 35 cases of measles, its first significant outbreak in a generation, as well as hundreds of confirmed cases of whooping cough.
Seven children have died from the disease, all of them in the neighbouring province of Entre Ríos, according to reports.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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