While anti-vaccination sentiment appears low in the London-Middlesex region, provincial health officials are launching a campaign in an effort to dispell myths and misinformation surrounding immunization.
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the Middlesex-London Health Unit held an event at the Banting House National Historic Site on Wednesday in an effort to underscore the importance vaccines have to the overall health of a community. Health officials at the event also announced a multi-channel advocacy campaign from the OMA that will target the spread of anti-vaccine myths using the hashtag #AskOntarioDocs.
"Unfortunately some of the information on the internet is wrong and does not tell the whole story or whole picture of how vaccines work," said OMA President Dr. Sohail Gandhi during the event. "We're trying to counter some of the information that's out on the internet. We're trying to provide a legitimate, well-backed, well-supported source of information and data on vaccines."
Gandhi said parents want to make the best decisions for their children, however, 63 per cent of parents in Canada have admitted to looking for immunization information on the Internet, and half of them are sourcing information through a random Google search.
Middlesex-London Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie said usually viruses, such as measles, are brought into Canada from other less vaccinated countries. He added that when a measles case is detected locally in London-Middlesex, the virus does not spread, which is an indication that vaccination is working.
"What we're interested in is the health of our population and what is most important is that our population wholeheartedly embraces vaccination. We don't need every single person to get vaccinated. What we need is the vast majority... and that's what we're seeing," he said.
Mackie said while the London-Middlesex region has seen its share of vaccination hesitancy, only three per cent of local students have parents who have requested voluntary exemptions.
The World Health Organization has called vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to health across the globe.
"We know that are a lot of diseases that are extremely serious... We've seen outbreaks of measles in the United States in various clusters where vaccine hesitancy seems to be increasing," said Gandhi.
Measles can cause pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and other serious problems even years after the initial infection. Children are more vulnerable and measles can spread aggressively to people who are not vaccinated.
"Vaccination has been well regarded as one of the greatest achievements of public health in human history. I would argue vaccination is second only to clean water in terms of the positive health effect that is created," said Mackie. "Canadians and London-Middlesex residents, in particular, have adopted vaccination as our cultural norm. Vaccination is what we do to protect our children and our families."
For more information about the OMA's advocacy campaign, click here.