With the recent Measles outbreak rising quickly in Ontario, public health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated.
CTV News Ottawa spoke with some parents on if they are worried about the virus. Parents say their kids are vaccinated, so right now they aren’t too worried.
“As per my family, myself, we’re all vaccinated. Our child is vaccinated, so not a lot of concern,” said Andres Delgado, parent to young child.
Although there are no confirmed or suspected cases in Ottawa, there have been 102 new cases reported this week in Ontario. That brings the total number of cases since the outbreak began to 572 and 36 children have been hospitalized.
“The more children and the more people are protected, the more the less the virus has a chance to get into communities and that’s what our goal is,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, medical officer of health and chief executive officer of eastern Ontario health unit. “We know that measles itself is vaccine preventable, and vaccines do a great job in preventing it.”
Delgado who used to work for public health says his daughter is very scared of vaccinations, but he knows how preventable the measure is, so he made sure to explain to her.
“A needle is just a small inconvenience compared to the measles. It’s all the same as with the dentists sometimes. Like, it’s a bit of pain, but you prevent something that’s like, way worse,” said Delgado.
The city is now testing wastewater for any signals of possible cases.
“When there’s high rates of vaccinations, a lot of our vaccination campaigns where a lot of people are getting vaccinated, we will be able to see traces of that, measles that was shed by the people who were just recently vaccinated,” said Robert Delatolla, Co-chair of the Ontario wastewater surveillance consortium.
Dr. Roumeliotis says it can be quite dangerous, but the good news is that measles is indeed vaccine preventable. We need two doses of vaccine, one at 12 months of age and one between four and six years of age.
“Our vaccination rates are quite high at this point. I’ve achieved levels that will protect the community. But again, once again, we will still keep an eye on it,” said Dr. Roumeliotis.
