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Canada relies on surveys, as national vaccination registry fails to get off the ground

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The latest numbers show about 30 per cent of kindergarten-aged kids aren’t fully vaccinated, but how accurate are the numbers?

In part four of a five-part look at the vaccination controversy, we’re finding out there are giant holes in vaccination record-keeping and failure to improve could put many at risk.

You need 95 per cent of the population to be vaccinated in order for what’s called “herd immunity” to protect the weak an vulnerable. If you have a percentage lower than that, highly contagious viruses like measles can make it to those who haven’t or can’t be vaccinated.

That’s why an accurate rate is so important, especially when you can travel across the country in less than a day.

Writer Genna Buck has researched this for Maclean’s Magazine. She says currently, the federal government just estimates the country-wide level by surveying 3,000 people — asking them about their vaccination history.

“And we know for a fact that there are pockets of under-immunized populations all across the country. But what we don’t know is exactly where we are; we can’t pinpoint those people,” she explains.

Buck says there was an attempt to solve this with a nation-wide registry back in 2004. “A number of provinces have opted out. It’s very difficult. Every province has slightly different rules for health care because health care is provincial in Canada.”

$135 million in federal money has been spent on the project so far.

This is compounded when families are asked to report their own vaccination history; a lot of them don’t.
And that’s what we’re left with: some parts of the country are still tracking vaccinations with cards filled out by doctors.

Buck says every single health professional and politician she talked to agrees we can do better. “It’s truly a logistical difficulty. This is a difficult, expensive thing to do.”

News1130’s Jill Drews wraps up her series on the vaccination controversy tomorrow.

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