Fraser Health is seeing an uptick in parents calling about vaccinations after a recent measles outbreak in Disneyland, but 42 per cent of New Westminster kids under the age of two are still unvaccinated, according to health authority data.
“They’re concerning if they would continue to go down,” Burnaby-New Westminster public health manager Corinna Orobko said of the immunization numbers. “We do need to see them increase. We like to see closer to 80 per cent. Herd immunity is better if it’s higher. We are putting ourselves a little bit at risk to have some outbreaks.”
New West’s immunization rate for kids under two has dropped from 68 per cent in March 2013 and 65 per cent in March 2014 to 58 percent October – well below the Fraser Health average of 69 per cent.
Orobko, however, said the number of local kids actually vaccinated is probably higher because New West parents often take them to nearby Vancouver for shots, and Fraser Health has no way of tracking those numbers.
New West’s high immigrant and refugee population is also mobile, Orobko said, and the health authority has no way of determining whether people who originally landed in New West are now living and vaccinating their kids somewhere outside of the health region or still in New West not vaccinating them.
As for newcomers being averse to vaccination on religious, cultural or other grounds, Orobko said she doesn’t think that significantly affects the data.
“I don’t think that’s the issue,” she said. “(Immigrants and refugees) are very appreciative of health care because they’ve seen some of the things that happen when these diseases do occur because there aren’t enough vaccinations where they’ve been. They’re appreciative of health care, period, because they may not have had the access.”
Orobko said local public health officials are doing everything they can to boost immunization numbers, offering evening clinics, concentrating on followup appointments and cleaning up local vaccination data.
Regrettable as the Disneyland measles outbreak is, Orobko said, health officials are encouraged by the public’s response.
“It’s terrible that we have outbreaks of measles,” she said, “but at least people are saying, ‘OK, this happened there. It could happen to me. I have to go get my kids immunized.’”
Along with urging parents to get their kids vaccinated, Orobko is calling on those who have taken them outside of Fraser Health to report back to the health authority.
She’d also like to see parents call in to update their contact information.
Routinechildhood immunizations are free, safe and recommended at two, four, six, 12 and 18 months, according to Fraser Health.
A follow-up immunization or “booster” is given at four years of age.
Health officials don’t consider children fully protected against vaccine-preventable diseases until they have completed the recommended immunizations.
For more informationon vaccinations and where to get your child immunized, visit www.fraserhealth.ca/your_health/immunization.
