Immunization Changes

Tuesday, 23 September 2014 at 05:30

The Ontario government have made some updates to the Immunization of School Pupils Act.

OXFORD COUNTY -- Three more vaccinations have been added to the list of mandatory immunizations required for school attendance.

As of July 1st, the Ontario government added meningococcal disease (meningitis), whooping cough (pertussis) and chickenpox (varicella) to the Immunization of School Pupils Act, meaning all school-age children starting in the 2014/15 school year will be required to follow these new requirements. However, the chickenpox vaccine only applies if the child was born on or after January 1, 2010.

According to Oxford County Public Health's Program Supervisor of Health Protection Joanne Andrews, these are on top of the original vaccinations however new doses are required. "Tetanus, diphtheria, polio, mumps, measles and rubella -- and the other change that came on July 1st of this year was that there's new does requirements for four diseases; that's the tetanus, diphtheria, polio and mumps. So there is a different number of doses required now than was in the previous legislation."

Students who have not submitted exemption forms with the school boards and are not properly vaccinated could face suspension however Andrews points out that Public Health will be sending another round of letters to those who do not have up to date vaccinations before that would apply.

"Later on this year we will be sending another letter with some of the same information if we haven't received it yet and also for new students that have entered the school system here and new students that have entered school for the first time this year. So we will be notifying parents and guardians, they will receive at their home and that letter will specify what information we're missing."

Andrews suggest checking with your health care provider or Public Health to make sure your child has all the vaccines needed to attend school but points out that if your child has followed the Ontario immunization schedule, no further vaccines will be needed.

For more information on the recent changes and child immunization, visit www.oxfordcounty.ca/childimmunization.