The Chairman of the Standing Child Protection Committee of Dubai’s Health Authority has announced parents must vaccinate their children or risk being charged with negligence. It comes as there is a measles outbreak in the country. The Chairman added children requiring breastfeeding must also be breastfed. In addition, a parent or parents who fail to get a child who has a serious disease adequately treated could be charged with negligence.

Elsewhere in Dubai, the Health Authority’s Dubai Health Insurance Corporation have announced they have issued Directives meaning new-born babies will be able to get health insurance as soon as they are born rather than having to wait.

Directive No. 2/2019 applies to all parties involved in health insurance plans in the Emirate. New-borns will be covered under their mother’s insurance policy for 30 days or up to the annual limit of the mother’s insurance policy. Insurance companies must then issue an individual insurance policy for the child.

Previously insurance companies could implement a waiting period for providing insurance to a new-born which meant if anything happened to them they were uninsured. It comes into force with immediate effect.