Ottawa Public Health says there are still thousands of Ottawa schoolchildren who are facing suspension because their immunization records are not up to date.
The suspension deadlines are quickly approaching.
Lorette Dupuis, the Program Manager for Immunization at Ottawa Public Health says there are approximately 930 Grade 7 to 12 students in Ottawa’s French-language public and catholic schools that could be suspended by next week. The deadline for students in the French public board (the conseil des écoles publique de l’Est de l’Ontario) to update their records is Jan. 30 – this Wednesday. Catholic students in the conseil des écoles catholiques du centre-est have until Monday, February 4.
There are an additional 3000 students in the Ottawa Catholic School Board facing a suspension date of February 6 – next Wednesday – if their shots aren’t up to date.
OPH says parents are updating their children’s immunization records daily, and the numbers are expected to fall closer to the suspension date.
"We're receiving over 200 phone calls a day at our immunization unit," Dupuis says.
The number has fallen significantly since the letters first went out. In early December there were more than 25,000 students in Ottawa whose records were out of date.
When OPH first started sending these notes in 2014, Dupuis says there were many more students whose records hadn't been updated.
"There were over 50,000 first notices that went out to parents," she says. "This year it was half of that. I think we're coming to a point where this will be the amount of first notices we send yearly."
The most common shots that are missing vary by age, but Dupuis says for younger kids it's usually a case of missing information when it comes to the vaccines given to babies and sometimes the four- to six-year-old boosters. For older students it's usually a missed Grade 7 booster for meningitis or for tetanus, diphtheria, polio and pertussis (whooping cough).
Dupuis says the aim of the suspensions is the protection of the broader school community.
"We want to protect the children that are going to school and those who are immunocompromised and can't get vaccines. That's why we really do this," she says. She adds recent media reports about outbreaks of measles and whooping cough keep the matter top of mind at Ottawa Public Health.
"The larger number who are vaccinated,” Dupuis says, “the less risk of a disease popping up in the school."
For parents who may still have children whose records are not up to date, Dupuis says the best advice is to call Ottawa Public Health at 613-580-6744 to speak to a public health nurse about it.
