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Education minister mulls mandatory immunization for teachers

New Brunswick Education Minister Dominic Cardy says he isn't ruling out mandatory immunization for teachers and school staff across the province.

His comments come in the midst of a measles outbreak in the Saint John region and a whooping cough outbreak in the Fredericton region.

"I want to make sure that we've got as close to universal vaccine regime in this province when it comes to the public education system, so I'm going to be looking at all different options in the next little while," he said.

For now, Cardy is urging every adult in the province to get immunized and get their children immunized "as quickly as possible."

"People's health and lives are at risk."

An unspecified number of teachers, staff and students at 19 schools across the Anglophone South School District have been told to stay home until early next week because of the measles outbreak.

They may have been exposed to the infected individual at Kennebecasis Valley High School in Quispamsis and could be incubating the highly contagious disease that's transmitted through the air or by direct contact, officials have said.

That's certainly a conversation that will be had going forward. - Dominic Cardy, education minister

Most people with measles recover completely after about 10 days, but complications can include ear infections, pneumonia, blindness and swelling of the brain, which can cause seizures, deafness, brain damage or death. If contracted during pregnancy, it can cause miscarriage, premature labour, and low birth weight.

A special immunization clinic for anyone born between 1970 and 1995 who doesn't have the recommended two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, is being held Thursday in Saint John at Exhibition Park, 39 McAllister Dr., until 8 p.m.

Teachers groups respond

The New Brunswick Teachers' Association and New Brunswick Teachers Federation had little to say about the prospect of mandatory immunization, responding to an interview request with a one-sentence emailed statement.

"[We're] confident that this issue is being handled by the proper authorities, Health and ASD-South, the school district," said spokesperson Blake Robichaud.

Cardy doesn't know what the immunization rates among teachers and staff are because the department isn't authorized to collect that data.

"Right now, I don't have the power to legislate [teacher and staff immunization] in any way," he said.

"That's certainly a conversation that will be had going forward, but right now, my goal is to use the powers I have to make sure that our students are properly protected so we can get herd immunity in classrooms up to 95 per cent or above — that's where we need to be."

Gilles Landry/Radio-Canada
Gilles Landry/Radio-Canada

New Brunswick does have a policy requiring students to prove they are immunized against several diseases, including measles, mumps and diphtheria, before they enter the school system.

The aim of Policy 706 is to "minimize the risk that an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease will occur" and to make sure students are protected if such an outbreak happens.

But Cardy said he only recently discovered the policy hasn't been enforced "for a very long time." The seven school districts have not been collecting the entry data, "despite the fact that it's mandated."

"We have no idea what the [immunization] rates are," he said.

"That's why I've been focusing on moving through the legal steps that I'm allowed under the act to get this problem fixed as quickly as I can."

Updating student vaccination rate data

Cardy said his first step is to get updated student non-compliance rates from the districts. Those numbers are "nearly ready," he said.

The next step will be to determine if those students have actually been vaccinated but their proof is at home, whether they're seeking an exemption for medical or personal reasons, or if they just didn't get the required shots.

Based on that information, decisions will be made about whether any schools will hold immunization clinics, he said.

"We're seeing the consequences now with the cases that are breaking out and the spike in diseases like measles around the world that we've obviously become a lot too complacent around the incredible gift that vaccines give to us as a population," said Cardy.

"So we need to remember that. We don't want to go back to the old days of people dying of easily preventable diseases. Let's use the public health system we've got, and put a lot of effort into building over a long time, and make sure everyone's immunized."