The number of children between 3 and 16 years of age having their first measles vaccination reached 4,600 between May and October, up from 2,700 in the same period of last year.

Whether this has something to do with this summer’s measles outbreak in the Bible Belt area of the Netherlands is not known. However, the public health institute RIVM told the NRC that most parents allowing their children to be vaccinated would have refused when the child was still a baby.

In the Netherlands, all parents are offered the vaccine for their babies, but orthodox Dutch Protestant parents usually refuse.

A 17-year-old girl from Zeeland, who had not been vaccinated, died last Saturday from complications after contracting measles. Over 2,000 people have been officially diagnosed with the disease in this summer’s epidemic.