A northern Ontario health unit is having great success with vaccination rates.
In fact, it leads the province in vaccination rates, which has become a hot topic these days, often times leading to heated arguments.
Dr. Jim Chirico is the medical officer of health for North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit.
He says people who don’t get their kids vaccinated can affect how their immune systems will be able to fend off diseases.
“The truth of the matter is, it's the infectious diseases that are the greatest threat to children and this can be prevented. I mean no child needs to have to suffer.” said Dr. Chirico.
For this reason, a local mom and her family, skipping vaccines just isn’t an option.
Alexa Babnik supports vaccinations.
“Compared to what it could be, like measles, tetanus, I see these things all over the news all the time, all over the internet, kids suffering from these preventable diseases and it's quite awful.” said Babnik.
And because of parents like Babnik, the North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit has the highest rate in Ontario of children aged seven being up to date on all of their vaccinations.
“We've all worked together to really protect our kids and get them immunized and get the rates up.” said Dr. Chirico.
But he adds that he does see why some parents choose not to vaccinate.
“I believe parents that are ‘vaccine-hesitant’ really are very well intentioned. They want the best for their kids, as we all do. But they've got concerns and some of the concerns are because they've been given information, more correctly misinformation that really kind of scares them.” said Dr. Chirico.
When it comes to measles, according to Public Health Ontario, North Bay and Sudbury have higher rates of seven year old children vaccinated, compared to Toronto, where 25% of children that age aren’t vaccinated.
