Anti-vaccination politician hospitalised with chickenpox

An Italian politician who gained fame for his vehement opposition to vaccinations has been hospitalised with the chickenpox.

Massimiliano Fedriga has labelled a law that makes it mandatory for children to be vaccinated as "Stalinist".

But he was hospitalised for four days earlier this month after contracting the virus, for which there is a vaccine.

He told Repubblica that he was now convalescing at home.

"Fortunately, I'm fine," Mr Fedriga said.

"I discovered, however, that on social media the usual serial haters cheer, laugh, tease me and spread falsehoods because I got sick."

Parents can be fined if they send their children to school unless they have been vaccinated for chickenpox, measles, mumps, polio and rubella.

Mr Fedriga, who serves as president of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region for the far-right Northern League party, has been a vocal opponent of the law.

Prominent Italian microbiologist Robert Burioni was scathing of Mr Fedriga's attitude to vaccines.

"Chickenpox is not only very contagious (and dangerous) but is even transmitted by patients before the onset of symptoms," Dr Burioni said.

"If he had infected a pregnant woman we would be facing a malformed child or an abortion."

Chickenpox is responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide each year.

Hospitalisations for chickenpox plummeted in Australia when the vaccine was introduced in 2005.