The TN-O head doctor. worried about the rate of measles vaccination

The medical doctor from the Northwest Territories says she is worried about the measles vaccination rate, which has dropped recently, and invites people to be vaccinated.

Dr. Kami Kandola was expressed in the show Trailbreaker of CBC/Radio-Canada on cases of measles which affect the T.N.-O. Currently.

The first cases were reported during the weekend of May 3 and 4. The virus seems to have circulated in three schools and two businesses to Yellowknife In recent days.

According to Dr. Kami Kandola, it is a non-vacuted traveler who arrived by plane who would have transmitted the disease to T.N.-O. Recently, which worries the doctor-chief.

It notes a drop in the use of measles, rubella and mumps (RRO) vaccine. The vaccination rate was 90 % for children two and over in 2019. It is now 82 % in 2024, says Kami Kandola.

It recalls that a population must be vaccinated up to 95 % so that they can benefit from group immunity. Having a lower vaccination rate made possible the reappearance of measles, according to the doctor-chief.

This ensures that a fully immune person against measles, either because they have received two doses of vaccines, or because it has already contracted the disease once in their life, has almost no risk of catching it again.

Kami Kandola also specifies that the extremely contagious measles virus is transmitted in the air, and that it can stay for two hours suspended in a room even after the infected person is gone.

If 10 non -immunized people are exposed to measles, nine of them will come out infected!

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She asks individuals who have not been vaccinated and who may have been exposed to isolate themselves, and call 811.

Kami Kandola recalls the symptoms of measles which are generally triggered between 10 and 14 days after the person contracted the virus:

If the consequences of the disease on people with a functional immune system hardly worry, it is more concerned with the impact that diseases can have on immunodeficient individuals.

Children, infants and pregnant women are also likely to develop severe complications.

It therefore recommends that unaccompanied people go to the nearest public health center and request a vaccine. Vaccinated people who come into contact with the virus have almost 100 % chance of not developing the disease, and if by chance they do, which is extremely rare, they are much less likely to transmit it.

It is non-vaccinated people who spread measles across Canada.

She also notes that there is a certain weariness and a little hesitation in relation to vaccination. Between the epidemic of COVID-19 and the fact that many young parents have never been confronted with measles, she considers that vaccines are victims of their own efficiency.

When you have never seen any cases of measles, you do not know how much this disease can affect your child. There may be very serious complicationsshe explains. You cannot trust the group’s immunity provided by a very vaccinated population. The less people receive vaccines, the more your children run a risk.

Finally, it concludes with a recall that people born before 1970 are generally immune to the disease, because most of them have been exposed to it, and that the disease is only caught once. However, she still recommends receiving a dose of vaccine Rro In the event of movement in an area affected by measles, as a precaution.

Reopening of two schools

In press releases, the Yellowknife Catholic School Board, two of the schools of which were closed on Monday, said it has gathered enough evidence of the vaccination of its staff to reopen a first school (Weledeh) this Tuesday, May 6, and the second (St Patrick) on Wednesday, May 7.

However, he asked all people who have not received two doses of measles vaccine not to go. The School Board declares to comply on this point with the directives it has received from public health.

With information from the show Trailbreaker and Hilary Bird