Northern Health's measles immunization 'catch-up' program includes clinic at Prince Rupert Middle School

The Ministry of Health has stepped up a program to ensure that children
have been protected against measles with clinics available in Prince Rupert

Northern Health has taken steps to address some of the concerns related to measles of recent months, hosting a number of measles catch up clinics to ensure that families have provided for protection for their children against measles.

The program in the Northwest is part of the larger provincial call which was announced by Health Minister Adrian Dix in March of this year.

“With outbreaks of measles occurring globally and here in B.C., we know we will see threats of further outbreaks and can be doing more to raise immunization rates. That is why we are launching a catch-up program to immunize children from kindergarten to Grade 12 who have not previously been immunized against measles and to provide a dose for those who may not have received both doses. Our goal is to immunize as many people as possible before the end of the school year. The purpose, ultimately, is to reach an immunization rate of 95% as recommended.” -- Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.

The catch-up program is the first step in government’s two-phase plan to educate people about the importance of immunization and help them become aware of their immunization status. Offering the measles immunization catch-up program now will also help prepare parents for the mandatory reporting of vaccination status, which is planned for the fall of 2019.

Towards the provincial goal Northern Health has announced a number of clinics across the Northwest with the Prince Rupert Community Clinic at the Ocean Centre offices taking place on a drop in basis on Monday's Wednesday's and Friday's from 1 to 4:30 PM.

This week they also host two catch up clinics at Prince Rupert Middle School, the first of which took place yesterday from 9AM to Noon, the second clinic is set for tomorrow, with the Thursday clinic at PRMS set to take place from 9AM to 4 PM.

You can review more information related to the program from Northern Health here, included in their notes are the listings of Community clinics across the Northern Health Service region.

For more items of note related to Health issues in the region see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review