Peel Region has major childhood vaccination backlog

Peel Region has massive childhood vaccination backlog, with more than half of children missing at least one mandated vaccine dose.

That's the warning from Peel Public Health's Acting Medical Officer of Health, who says the lack of school immunizations is spelling trouble for communicable diseases.

"Without significant dedicated resources, we estimate it will take seven years to complete screening catch up and achieve pre-pandemic coverage rates," said Acting Medical Officer Dr. Katherine Bingham in a presentation to Peel council on April 11.

She says low immunization coverage among students significantly increases the risk for the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.

Unless children have a valid exception, the following vaccines are mandatory for Ontario school children: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, whooping cough and chicken pox. Several other vaccines are strongly recommended by public health units and doctors. 

Advocates, doctors and Peel public health are advocating for more attention to the issue, more money from the province for public health and the formation of an action plan to quickly address the currently low vaccination rates.

Peel stacks lower than the provincial average on a number of vaccinations. For example, just over 37 per cent of seven-year-olds had been vaccinated against measles compared to more than 52 per cent province-wide as of August 31, 2022.

Peel Public Health says many children missed vaccinations they would have received at school or a doctor's offices. Reporting of vaccines and enforcement also fell behind in the pandemic. To tackle the backlog more quickly, Peel Public Health opened public clinics for mandatory vaccines as of April 1 of this year.

Jill Promoli, a Mississauga mother, lost her son, Jude, to a school flu outbreak eight years ago even though he was vaccinated. She's now an illness prevention advocate championing immunizations and said the low vaccination rates in Peel children are "very concerning."

"We never thought it would be us, but it is going to be someone," said Promoli, who's also a Peel District School Board Trustee, but did not speak to CBC Toronto in that capacity.

"The reason that we do vaccinate against these diseases is not because they're inconvenient or uncomfortable, but it's because people do die from them," she said.

Promoli says she's also concerned about children who are vaccinated being exposed, given vaccines do not provide complete immunity.

Pediatric and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anna Banerji, called the proportion of Peel students missing a mandated dose "very high."

"It needs to be addressed," she said.