West Vancouver’s low immunization rates are on the rebound, according to a representative with Vancouver Coastal Health.
A recent UBC study found vaccination rates on the North Shore to be the lowest in the region. Using Richmond’s high vaccination rates as a baseline, the study found children in West Vancouver and Bowen Island were 28.8 per cent less likely to have up-to-date immunizations. North Vancouver’s vaccination rates were 19.6 per cent behind Richmond’s pace and only slightly ahead of rates in the Downtown Eastside.
However, West Vancouver’s immunity to contagious diseases has improved over the past five years, according to Dr. Meena Dawar with VCH, who estimates the affluent community’s vaccination rates are now approximately 78 per cent.
The steady increase follows a 2010 plummet when West Vancouver’s vaccination rates hit a “shocking” low of 55 per cent, according to Dawar. There is no easy explanation for the tumble in immunizations, she said.
“It wasn’t that our information system changed in 2010, it wasn’t that our relationship suddenly fell apart in 2010, but there was a big drop in 2010.”
The UBC study found there were higher rates of “philosophical belief exemptions” surrounding private schools as well as among “greater percentages of white and higher socioeconomic status students.”
Philosophical objections remain a North Shore issue, according to Dawar.
“We have pockets of vaccine-hesitancy within our community,” she said.
There are a number of solutions when considering the needle and the damage done, according to Dawar.
“The vast majority of parents want to have their children immunized, we just need to make it easy for them,” she said. “Our working hypothesis is that parents are busy and it’s harder for them to take time off to have their children immunized between 9 to 5.”
To aid immunizations, VCH has added drop-in immunizations and worked with families who experienced illnesses stemming from vaccine-prevented diseases to promote immunizations.
Ontario mandates vaccinations for school entry, but that’s not an approach Dawar is eager to explore.
“We don’t think mandatory immunization as school entry is the answer,” she said, explaining Ontario’s coverage rates are “no different than ours.”
In a separate 10-year study, clinical investigator Dr. Nicole Le Saux of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario credited rotavirus vaccine programs with an 81 per cent decline in the number of children sent to pediatric hospitals with rotavirus infections.
Immunizations are available at the Central Community Health Centre at 132 Esplanade West in North Vancouver, as well as the West Vancouver Community Health Centre at 2121 Marine Dr.
Immunizations are also offered at Parkgate Community Health Centre, 3625 Banff Court in North Vancouver.
