More than 250,000 children in Greece don't inoculate as a result of the economic crisis

Speaking to journalists, general secretary Liana Mailli noted that this number is an approximation, as Greece doesn’t provide data on inoculations to the European Union, as it is supposed to. She also said the number was valid two years ago, before the dramatic rise of the refugee and migrant flows to Greece.

“To the old numbers, we must now add the children of refugees who we don’t know how many vaccinations they’ve had. All these issues create an explosive situation and there’s a real risk that diseases which had been eliminated, such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles and polio, will reappear,” Mailli said.

After the dismissal of a large number of doctors, she added, the state-run health insurer EOPYY and other health facilities “have been decimated and cannot serve the insured, let alone uninsured children.”