In Gaines County, Texas, where a measles outbreak has killed one six-year-old and one adult, the measles vaccination rate among kindergarteners is just 82 per cent, according to reporting by The Atlantic. That’s a higher measles vaccination rate than children have here in B.C.
There’s a concerning trend emerging in Canada and the United States when it comes to vaccine hesitancy.
British Columbians are being warned of higher levels of invasive group A streptococcal (iGAS) infections than usual, particularly among children.
The BC Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is reminding people to take prevention measures and seek care as levels of influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infections in the province rise and have resulted in three influenza-associated deaths among children (under the age of 19) in the last two weeks of December.
A new text-based health alert system has been launched across the Interior Health region in response to the ongoing toxic drug emergency. Drug alerts play an important role in empowering people who use drugs to do so more safely.
A recent B.C. research study demonstrated the benefits of distributing fentanyl test strips for take-home use based on the accuracy of the tests and the fact most overdose deaths occur at home.
British Columbia health officials are still undecided on whether fourth vaccine doses will be made available to the general population as immunity to COVID-19 wanes and the possibility of future, more transmissible variants loom.
The province is dropping a wide range of pandemic restrictions with mask requirements to end as early as tomorrow (March 11), on the back of high vaccination rates and lower transmission.
With Canada’s first two known cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern (VOC) identified in Ottawa, B.C.’s health authorities say there is no evidence this new variant has been introduced into the province.