The Hamilton Spectator

School vaccinatio­n enforcemen­t will resume in next school year

Public health department delays suspension for students not up to date on inoculatio­ns

- GRANT LAFLECHE GRANT LAFLECHE IS AN AWARDWINNI­NG INVESTIGAT­IVE JOURNALIST WITH THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR. REACH HIM AT GLAFLECHE@TORSTAR.CA.

Hamilton’s public health department will soon send notices to parents of children whose vaccinatio­n records are not up to date, but says it will not suspend students with lapse records until the next school year.

The health department’s enforcemen­t program — which would have seen students with out-of-date records suspended for up to 20 days — was halted in March in the wake of a sprawling cyberattac­k at city hall.

That attack resulted in the municipali­ty being locked out of many of its systems, including the public health department immunizati­on database. The crippled systems also meant parents could not upload their children’s vaccinatio­n records as they got their mandated shots to protect them from diseases like measles.

With no way to track which student records were up to date, the health department scuttled its enforcemen­t program until the city systems were back up and running.

Although the online reporting tool is again available to parents, John Walker, the director of communicab­le disease control at the health department said on Tuesday that the enforcemen­t program won’t resume this school year.

“Hamilton public health is in the process of providing notice to parents of students of overdue vaccine records and planning to resume the enforcemen­t component of the Immunizati­on of School Pupils Act in the 2024-25 school year,” said Walker in an emailed statement.

The enforcemen­t program was a response to declining vaccinatio­n rates among elementary and high school students. In February, when the launch of the program was announced, more than a third of Hamilton students did not have upto-date records.

Immunizati­on rates, including those against potentiall­y lethal diseases like measles, dropped off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effect was not limited to Hamilton. Vaccinatio­n rates for measles around the world plummeted to such an extent that the World Health Organizati­on (WHO) reported in December a 30-fold rise in measles cases in Europe.

When the pandemic receded, many public health department­s — including Hamilton’s — ramped up efforts to get needles into arms to prevent outbreaks. In the case of highly communicab­le viruses likes measles, immunizati­on levels had slipped below the threshold needed to stop community spread.

However, without a means to know who was immunized after the cyberattac­k, the program was suspended.

Walker said in an emailed statement that while the enforcemen­t program was halted, vaccinatio­n clinics continue to operate.

“Hamilton public health’s school vaccinatio­n clinics were not impacted by the cybersecur­ity incident, and our vaccine program staff have continued to offer vaccine clinics in schools for school-aged vaccines,” said Walker. “As well, public health has continued to offer catch-up community clinics for those who have missed or overdue vaccines, particular­ly for those without access to primary care.”

The news that the enforcemen­t program will not run during the last month of the school year comes shortly after the health department confirmed that a child under the age of five in Hamilton had died from a measles infection.

The health department has not disclosed the age or gender of the child, nor how they contracted the virus, but did confirm last week the child was not vaccinated. The death is the first measles-related death in Ontario in more than a decade.

 ?? HAMILTON SPECTATOR FILE PHOTO ?? Hamilton elementary and high school students without up-to-date vaccinatio­n records will be suspended for up to 20 days, but not until the next school year.
HAMILTON SPECTATOR FILE PHOTO Hamilton elementary and high school students without up-to-date vaccinatio­n records will be suspended for up to 20 days, but not until the next school year.

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