Canada's chief public health officer is urging parents to check that routine childhood vaccinations are up-to-date as kids head back to school.
In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Joss Reimer said measles is still spreading, while vaccine misinformation continues to circulate online.
The national measles immunization rate for two-year-olds is about 85 per cent, falling short of the 95 per cent needed for herd immunity, Reimer said.
Although rates of infection in the multi-province measles outbreak that began in 2024 — and cost Canada its measles elimination status late last year — appear to be going down, kids who aren't vaccinated are always at risk because people bring the virus into the country and it's "incredibly infectious," she said.
Most provinces have declared the outbreak over at various times over the last year but recent cases have been reported in Manitoba, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website.
Children should receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 18 months, or around the time they start school, depending on the province.
Reimer said parents should check their child's vaccine record and reach out to a primary-care provider or their local public health unit if they can't find it.
"I know there's a lot to think about when it's back-to-school. But this is a great time that we want you to just trigger your memory to double-check this before your kids end up in that space where viruses can spread so easily," she said.
It can be hard for parents to wade through misinformation stoking fear about vaccines online and find science-based health advice, she said.
"Sometimes when people aren't even looking for it, they're still being bombarded by misinformation through algorithms," Reimer said.
"Of course parents have questions. We want parents to have questions when they're thinking about any intervention with their children, but I just want to make sure that they also have access to reliable answers," she said.
Parents can find evidence-based information on childhood vaccination through public health and medical association websites and the Canadian Paediatric Society, Reimer said.
But it's even more important to make sure people have access to fact-based information at the community level through the people they trust, she said.
"Most people will never meet me in person. And so whether or not they trust me in my role ... (in) government, I need to make sure that what I'm saying reflects what their family doctor is saying (and) reflects what they're finding online so that they're hearing accurate information hopefully as often as they're seeing that misinformation," Reimer said.
"People really, at the end of the day, they trust the people in their lives," she said.
A family doctor or nurse practitioner is an important source of information who patients and parents trust, highlighting the need to make sure every Canadian has a primary-care provider, Reimer said.
Public health workers also need to connect with community leaders and religious leaders to ensure they have accurate information about vaccination they can share, she added.
Reimer said she also thinks the majority of people who are behind on getting their kids immunized are not anti-vaccine.
"I think most of the time it comes (down) to competing priorities. Life is difficult when it's hard to pay the bills, when it's hard to make ends meet. Focusing on preventive care — that can be hard to get that to the top of the to-do list."
Reimer said she worries about other vaccine-preventable diseases taking hold, such as mumps and rubella, which the MMR shot also protects against.
Australia is currently in the midst of diphtheria outbreaks, she said.
"There's no reason that this couldn't happen here as well," Reimer said, noting that vaccination rates for the serious bacterial infection are below 80 per cent for two-year-olds in Canada.
Children should receive multiple doses of the tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and polio vaccine, starting at two months of age, according to the Canadian Immunization Guide.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
