The COVID-19 pandemic has paused many things, including school-based vaccination programs.
As a result, thousands of local Kingston-area students have missed out on Hepatitis B, HPV, Tdap and meningococcal shots, among others.
Vaccine Preventable Disease Program Manager at Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Public Health (LGLPH) Jennifer Adams says that this delay could be costly.
“Certain vaccines, more particularly looking at Hepatitis B and HPV, are very age dependent,” Adams says. “If you miss the opportunity now, then your child or yourself would have to pay for those vaccines.
“And we’re really talking hundreds of dollars, even upwards of $500 for these vaccines if you do miss out on this opportunity.”
Across the region, public health departments are reporting a backlog in immunizations for students.
5,300 children in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark are missing Hepatitis B, HPV and meningococcal shots according to public health’s database.
An additional 860 students are missing their Tdap shots in the LGLPH region.
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFLAPH) are reporting just over 3,300 students missing their shots.
“What we’re doing in KFL&A is providing catch-up clinics,” says Vaccine Preventable Disease Program Manager Brian Larkin. “For individuals who are not up to date on their vaccines, we are doing catch-up clinics to get up to speed and we’re using some of our infrastructure from the COVID pandemic.”
Larkin says some of the staff that were trained to work in COVID immunization and some of the large sites that were used as mass immunization clinics are being repurposed to be able to hold clinics for school-based vaccinations.
Similar clinics are being set up by LGLPH and by Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH).
The HPEPH Immunization Team says that, of approximately 4500 students in grades eight, nine and 10, “approximately 75 per cent of these students have received meningococcal vaccine, and approximately 50 per cent have received their first dose of Hepatitis B and HPV vaccine.”
“Approximately 17 per cent have received their second dose of HPV vaccine, and approximately 23 per cent have their second dose of Hepatitis B vaccine.”
All three public health units have plans to offer catch-up immunizations to the impacted cohorts in the coming months, before students age out.
Meanwhile, in-school vaccination programs are expected to fully resume during the next school year.