Last week, Canada made international headlines for the dubious milestone of losing the status of measles elimination. A wire story from the Associated Press in the U.S. quoted an infectious disease expert from Brown University. “It’s a deeply disheartening development. It’s a deeply worrisome development. And, frankly, it’s an embarrassing development,” said Jennifer Nuzzo. “No country with the amount of resources as Canada – or other countries in North America even – should lose their measles elimination status.” Canada achieved elimination status in 1998, two years ahead of the U.S.
Now, vaccines are victims of their own success. We have generations of parents who have no knowledge of the awful consequences the virus wreaks on its victims. And they’re the smallest and most vulnerable in our midst. Two infants died of measles recently, one in Alberta and one in Ontario.
The main culprit behind the spread of the disease is vaccine hesitancy. That’s unfortunate. The measles vaccine is safe. It’s been tried and tested for six decades. Before its introduction in 1963, it is estimated that 2.6 million people died globally per year from the disease.
A 1998 study linking the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine to autism was retracted by The Lancet, the publication that published it, and its author discredited. It nevertheless caused many parents to refuse to immunize their children against those diseases.
The measles outbreak raises the issue of what other vaccines our children aren’t receiving. Rubella can cause serious birth defects if a woman is infected during pregnancy. While the Health Canada website reports no recent rubella cases, how long will that last if we have lost herd immunity provided by vaccination?
While immunization is a requirement for students in most school boards, there’s usually an exemption for religious and conscientious objectors. It’s difficult to enforce immunization, so education is the only option.
Federal and provincial governments must step up programs that target vulnerable communities so parents understand the serious nature of these diseases. Improved modern healthcare has lulled us into the belief that our children are invincible, that they aren’t vulnerable to diseases that snatched life from so many in previous generations, and that doctors these days can fix everything. They can’t.
Canada’s not a third-world country. Let’s stop acting like one.