Immunization coalition wants vaccination rates to rise

There aren't enough children being vaccinated in Canada, putting them at risk of diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough, a pro-immunization group says.

The Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion, a partnership of national non-governmental, professional, health, consumer, government and private-sector organizations whose aim is to promote the use of vaccines, is using National Immunization Awareness Week to highlight the fact many Canadian children are not being immunized.

It says that the 2006 National Immunization Coverage Survey, developed by Health Canada and an immunization advisory group, shows that only 74 per cent of Canadian two-year-olds have received vaccinations for whooping cough and 61 per cent have been immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, Hib, measles, mumps and rubella.

"It is critically important that parents make sure their children receive all doses of the recommended vaccines," said Bonnie Henry, chair of the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion. "Otherwise they are at risk of some very serious diseases."

The federal government recently set immunization targets for 2010:

• A 95 per cent vaccination rate for whooping cough.
• An 85 per cent rate for chicken pox.
• A 97 per cent coverage rate for German measles.
• A 90 per cent rate for pneumococcal conjugate.
• A 97 per cent coverage rate for meningococcal C conjugate vaccines.

"As more individuals are protected, the more we reduce the health and economic costs of disease in Canada," said Susan Bowles, vice-chair of the Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion.