Provinces providing more childhood vaccines

The Public Health Agency's National Immunization Strategy has moved closer to its goal of ensuring equitable access to childhood vaccines, following a $300- million injection from Ottawa.

In 2004 the federal government committed the money, to be spent over 3 years, to help provinces and territories introduce new childhood and adolescent vaccines for pneumococcal conjugate, meningococcal conjugate, varicella and pertussis.

As of June 2005, an additional 250 000 infants and 200 000 adolescents had access to 1 or more of the publicly funded new vaccines, says Dr. Theresa Tam, associate director of respiratory illness with the Public Health Agency's Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Division.

Publicly funded coverage of vaccines has increased among the jurisdictions (see Table 1). For example, in 2003 only 3 jurisdictions provided the pneumococcal vaccine. Now every jurisdiction except the Northwest Territories covers. The vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of bacterimic pneumonia, earaches and meningitis, reduced the infection rate by 81.6% in children under age 2 in the 2 years since Alberta covered the vaccination (CMAJ 2005;173[10]: 1149-51).

All the provinces except PEI also cover influenza vaccines for children aged 6–23 months. All jurisdictions except Quebec and the Yukon Terrritory provide varicella vaccine for children between 12–18 months, and every jurisdiction except Nunavut covers meningococcal conjugate either for infants or adolescents.

The National Immunization Strategy includes a committee of federal and provincial/territorial representatives who discuss future vaccination needs, coverage requirements, new vaccines, existing gaps and the need for studies.

The committee also examines potential public health threats such as the anti-immunization lobby. Public and professional education is key to dealing with the concerns some parents have that vaccinating their children will lead to adverse events or serious illnesses.

“We have to take these concerns seriously, and providing safe, effective vaccines is key to the whole strategy,” says Tam.

The Public Health Agency is also developing strategies to target under-immunized populations such as First Nations and immigrant communities. — Laura Eggertson, CMAJ