The government can’t legislate compulsory measles vaccination, but Premier Philippe Couillard is urging parents to immunize their children out of a sense of responsibility.
“I recognize that courts have told us that you cannot make it compulsory,” Couillard told reporters after attending a news conference to announce a new international secretariat on the environment in Montreal.
“On the other hand, I don’t find it responsible for a parent not to follow the recommended immunization schedule.”
Couillard was responding to questions in the wake of confirmation this week two adults and eight children in the Lanaudière region are infected with the highly contagious disease. None of the 10, whom public health officials say belong to two families, had been vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons.
At least one of the 10 was reported to have visited Disneyland in California, where the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says an outbreak of measles that started in December has caused 114 cases across seven states.
As a former physician, the premier said although measles is usually benign, it can result in serious complications for some people.
“I’ve seen children with serious consequences of measles,” Couillard said.
“So to omit this vaccination, even if the courts recognize that people are sovereign in their decisions, it seems to me to be a very bad choice for families.”
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld an individual’s constitutional right to refuse medical treatment, he said, which prevents his government from requiring measles vaccination.
He urged medical experts and the media to sensitize the public to the need to immunize.
Vaccination, Couillard said, “is the very basis of public health. Why don’t we have polio here anymore? … Because we have the vaccine.”
Measles is a highly contagious virus that causes high fever, rash and a runny nose, Quebec’s health and social services department warns. Complications can include pneumonia, deafness and death in about one or two cases for every 1,000 infected individuals. Complications are most often seen in children under one year of age and among people with compromised immune systems or suffering a serious illness, such as leukemia.
Measles spreads through the air, which means it can be contracted by sharing space for a short time with a contagious person.
The health department reports since the beginning of 2011, Quebec has been experiencing the largest outbreak of measles in the Americas since the disease was declared eliminated in 2002.
