Their doggies clutched to their hearts, they stretched out their arms, sometimes crying bitterly, before realizing that in the end, they had been much more scared than hurt. In a Montreal school, Thursday morning, it was measles vaccination operation.
This primary school – whose name is being withheld to avoid any stigmatization – saw 150 of its students vaccinated this week.
The establishment is part of a group of 21 establishments targeted by public health authorities in eastern Montreal because measles vaccination rates there are considered insufficient.
As of Wednesday, the Quebec government has identified 29 confirmed cases of measles since the start of 2024 in the province, including 16 in Montreal.
Maryse Charest, school nurse, salutes the secretaries who, as part of such vaccination operations, make sure to reach the parents “while the language poses a challenge”.
Beyond the letters sent by public authorities, parental consent must be obtained by the school, sometimes with the help of computer translation tools, observes Mme Charest.
The response was very good, assures the director of the school visited on Thursday, who indicates that no parent questioned opposed the administration of the vaccine.
Around fifteen children, on the first day of the operation, flatly refused the injection. Parents were therefore invited to come to school today to reassure the children, who were also given little tights and given lots of reassuring words.
If the primary goal of these vaccination operations is of course to protect children and the population, Jean Roussel, head of program administration at the CIUSSS de l’Est de l’Île de Montréal, explains that it is also an opportunity important to update data on vaccination coverage, which is crucial, particularly if a case of measles should occur.
Mr. Roussel underlines the extent to which the stakes are not small. Each time a case is declared in the school, there is “exclusion from school for 14 days after the last declared case”, so that “the counter is reset to zero” each time and a child Unprotected can really miss long weeks of school.
In this year already marked by a strike, underlines the director of the school visited, this is far from desirable.