Why is Italy the anti-vaccination capital of Europe?

Anti-vaxxers have moved to the top of the country’s political agenda as measles cases skyrocket

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(Image credit: Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images)

Italy is facing one of its worst epidemics of measles, with the nation accounting for a quarter of all the cases in Europe this year. The scale of the outbreak - with a sixfold increase in rates of the potentially deadly disease over the past year - is being blamed on Italy’s vocal anti-vaccination movement, and on government complicity.

The debate has reached a peak in the past week, after Ivan Zaytsev, a volleyball player with Italy’s national team and an Olympic medallist, posted a photo online showing his seven-month-old daughter after receiving a vaccination. In response, he was sent a barrage of abuse from anti-vaxxers.

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