Vancouver Coastal hopes to reverse decline of vaccines

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver Coastal Health is looking to reverse a trend that has seen coverage rates for a childhood vaccine on the decline.

Parents are encouraged to start thinking ahead of the next school year.

Over the last seven years within Vancouver Coastal Health, there’s been a 10 point drop in the vaccination rates for the DPT booster, which covers whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, and polio.

Medical Health Officer Dr. Meena Dawar says your kindergarten-age child should get vaccinated before starting school.

“Throughout 2012, I believe we had close to 450 or 500 cases of pertussis or whooping cough in the Lower Mainland, and nearly half of those cases were in children who were not vaccinated at all, or under-vaccinated.”

Dr. Dawar says it’s safer to get the vaccine than to get the disease. “Many of the children were hospitalized, and there were a handful of ICU admissions, so it’s certainly very important to protect children from vaccine preventable diseases.”

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