Get your children immunized.
That's the message in a press release Tuesday from the B.C. government, which is continuing its response to the global measles outbreak by urging parents to ensure their children are immunized in time for the school year and requiring them to report the vaccinations to the local public health office.
"The next vital step is implementing the mandatory reporting of the immunization status of school-aged students," said Adrian Dix, minister of health, in the release. "Through this new requirement, we are making sure that our public health system is better prepared in the event of another outbreak in schools."
According to the ministry, most parents are already in compliance with this requirement and, before the end of September, will be able to see whether their child's record is contained in the provincial immunization registry by visiting imunnizebc.ca.
Parents can also take a proactive approach and contact their child's immunization service provider. In addition to public health and school clinics, parents can get their children immunized through their doctors or pharmacist.
"I would like to thank parents, educators and public health professionals for rallying in response to prevent the spread of measles," said Dix.
"Our work continues. Beginning in fall 2019, all public, independent and home-schooled students from kindergarten to Grade 12 who are enrolled in B.C. schools in 2019/’20 will be expected to have their current immunization status recorded in B.C.'s provincial immunization registry."
The new mandatory immunization reporting requirement allows public health workers to better respond to an outbreak by identifying those who don’t have all their shots or are not immunized. It also encourages parents to ensure their child's immunizations are up to date.
The province initially launched an immunization catch-up program, which ran from April to June 2019, to help ensure that school-aged children are protected against measles. Health authorities held 1,053 in-school clinics, as well as 3,584 public health clinics, in communities throughout B.C. from April 1 to June 30.
During the catch-up program, 590,748 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 had their immunization records reviewed. Parents and guardians of children who had missing or incomplete records were notified as well.
