KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Affairs at the Ministry of Health (MoH) Dr Majida Al-Qattan held a press conference yesterday to refute rumors questioning the safety of polio, measles and mumps vaccination campaigns launched recently by the ministry. Qattan stressed that as a member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) executive board, Kuwait takes part in WHO decision making and setting recommendations, including the current vaccinations. She also denied that the vaccines had been kept in storage.

The head of MoH's epidemics fighting unit Dr Mos'ab Al-Saleh also stressed the same, noting that the campaign had been decided by WHO in 2014 and took effect in 2016. "To those questioning the safety of the vaccines, I affirm that they had been made by the world's best companies," he said, noting that latest research proved that the vaccines do not cause autism.

Court orders

The criminal court yesterday sentenced six citizens to one year in prison and abstained from punishing 99 others over charges of forging punch-in fingerprints at their workplaces. Meanwhile, the cassation court stressed that lawmakers will be held responsible for the contents of inquiries they make in parliament that are slanderous, and they will be forced to financially compensate those offended.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi