rolling suspension Started in London, Ontario, area for students without deposit vaccination Record against preventable childhood diseases.
Starting Wednesday, the first group of students from the area were suspended for at least 20 days or until they had received their vaccines.
Provincial law, the Ontario Immunization of Student Pupils Act, requires students in grades 1–12 to be immunized against nine preventable diseases. Local health has the authority to issue a school suspension if a student does not have a full vaccination or valid exemption recorded.
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Dr Alex Summers, Medical Officer of Health at the Middlesex-London Health Unit, says the suspension is a way of stopping the spread of infectious childhood diseases, if there is an outbreak.
“We know that outbreaks of these vaccine-preventable diseases can keep kids out of school, and that’s what we’re trying to stop here,” Summers said.
Students should be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease and whooping cough. Children born in 2010 or later are also required to get the chickenpox vaccine.
Vaccine consumption has decreased significantly compared to the last full non-COVID-19 school year.
Compared to the 2018-19 school year, compliance among seven-year-olds is lower, between two and 49 percent, depending on the vaccine. In 17-year-olds, this rate has decreased between one and 45 percent, depending on the vaccine.
Summers says it’s important to note that these figures don’t necessarily represent the number of students who missed a required shot, but rather the number without records.
The top doctor said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a hindrance in many ways, not only in getting children vaccinated but also in informing parents about vaccinations, so the records are up to date.
The health unit last year sent nearly 42,000 letters to parents and guardians asking for vaccination record updates. Catch-up clinics were run throughout the summer to give children the opportunity to be immunized if they were behind.
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After sending a second round of letters in the fall, the health unit began issuing suspension notices in December. Suspensions will be issued to various fellows between January and June, with one month’s advance notice to give them time to submit documents.
“In most cases, we avoid the need for suspension,” Summers said, adding that of the 3,500 suspension notices issued last month, only 500 students remained out of school at the end of Thursday because 3,000 had submitted the proper documents. .
A permanent change in policy for the region would be that instead of only select grades being screened for immunization records, all students would be screened for documentation.
While differences in vaccination rates for preventable diseases are being blamed on barriers created by the pandemic, Summers says it is too early to tell whether anti-vaccination sentiment will affect student vaccinations.
“We are certainly conscious that attitudes toward vaccination are something that we need to monitor really closely,” Summers said.
“Vaccinations are one of the most important public health tools we have, and we have to make sure people are confident in the safety effectiveness of these tools.”
Summers says Middlesex-London is one of the first county health units to resume suspending students who lack documentation.
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