Alberta is catching up on routine childhood vaccinations after a pandemic hit

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Rates of routine vaccinations have fallen for infants and school-age children in Alberta as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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It’s a trend that, according to Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, was followed around the world after the pandemic disrupted routine filming. She said in a recent tweet that the trend could lead to an increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles.

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Provincial data shows a drop in vaccination rates for almost all routine vaccinations in 2021 compared to 2019 before the pandemic began.

The number of infants in Alberta who received four doses of the vaccine to protect against diseases such as diphtheria, polio, whooping cough and hepatitis B by the age of two fell from 78.8 percent to 74.8 percent.

At age seven, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine coverage dropped from 81 percent to 75.8 percent. The decline was less severe for school-based vaccines such as meningococcal conjugate, where 82.9 percent of Albertans had the full series by age 17 in 2021, compared with 84.7 percent two years earlier.

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The province has redirected many public health resources to fighting COVID-19 over the past more than two years, said pediatrician Dr. Sam Wong from Edmonton. However, he noted that the pandemic may have overshadowed routine admissions for some parents as well.

“It was all about COVID for a lot of parents, so people forgot about routine vaccinations. And as public health is overwhelmed with COVID, I think it’s gotten harder to get immunizations in some areas,” said Wong, who also heads the Alberta Medical Association’s division of pediatrics. He said it’s possible that infectious diseases like measles or polio could spread more easily in communities with low immunization.

“The concern is that with fewer children vaccinated, we will see more children with diseases that we thought were preventable.”

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In a statement to Postmedia, Alberta Health spokeswoman Lisa Glover said the province “strongly encourages” families to keep their children’s routine immunizations up to date.

Glover said the reallocation of school nurses to support COVID-19 testing sites has contributed to the fall in vaccination rates. She said work is being done to improve reporting.

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“We are good at catching up and are pleased with the success of raising rates again through a concerted public health effort with the support of schools and parents,” Glover said.

“AHS is working with schools to schedule routine school vaccination rounds this school year and will continue to catch up with all late students.”

Alberta Health said Canada has been considered polio-free since 1994 and said they had found no evidence of the virus that causes the disease during regular public health surveillance.

dr Shannon MacDonald, along with a team at the University of Alberta School of Nursing and School of Public Health, has been studying the impact of a pandemic on pediatric immunization rates in Alberta.

She said some parents likely avoided public health centers early in the pandemic over concerns about catching COVID-19, contributing to an initial drop in infant vaccine coverage.

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That coverage rate has recovered fairly well, MacDonald said, but it still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, she noted that Alberta’s goal should be to beat those previous rates.

“Our immunization coverage wasn’t where it needed to be before the pandemic. Our coverage should be in the 95 percent range for many of these vaccines, and some are in the 75 to 80 percent range,” she said.

Achieving those numbers will require greater investment in public health efforts, MacDonald said. She said it was easy enough to get more vaccine doses or needles, but more public health nurses were needed to staff clinics.

It’s also important that the school’s immunization efforts target students who are at risk of missing their shots if they graduate from high school, where clinics aren’t held, MacDonald said. It’s adding up to a busy year for public health officials.

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“We have to be careful not to lose kids who go into high school and we haven’t followed them up,” she said. “Public health is very aware of these issues, so it’s really prioritized catching up with the 9th graders.”

Wong is concerned about misinformation and immunization hesitations surrounding the COVID-19 immunizations, which are affecting parents’ decisions to complete their children’s routine immunization schedule.

“People go on social media and they end up down a rabbit hole and they don’t talk to their doctors or public health. Instead, they believe many of these untruths, and as a result, we see a lot more hesitation,” Wong said.

“These vaccines have been around for decades and have saved countless lives… These are preventable diseases with a simple shot, a simple shot. And if there are enough people who don’t do it, then it becomes a community problem, not just an individual problem.”

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Twitter: @jasonfherring