Nearly 9K elementary students in Waterloo region with out-of-date vaccination records face suspension

As measles cases continue to rise in Ontario, public health officials in Waterloo region have issued nearly 9,000 suspension orders to elementary school children who don't have up-to-date vaccination records.

In a release sent out Friday, Region of Waterloo Public Health tell families they have five weeks to update vaccination records, get vaccinated or apply for an exemption.

If these steps aren't taken, the 8,981 children who have been contacted by public health will be suspended from school starting April 2.

"This is an important process because the number one way to prevent a lot of these diseases is vaccine," David Aoki, the director of infectious disease and chief nursing officer for Region of Waterloo Public Health, told CBC News.

"We do this process to try and make sure that our schools are safe and our community is healthy," he said.

Aoki said the most important thing for parents right now is: "Don't sit on it."

"We're all creatures of habit and we all work on deadlines, but it will be much busier for parents to wait until the last minute. So we send out these orders with lots of notice still left before suspension," he explained.

The suspension orders are based on the vaccine records reported on or before Feb. 4. Families can update immunization records on the Region of Waterloo's website under "vaccine reporting."

Aoki said parents can also call public health if they aren't sure why they were sent the notice. 

"We'll explain why they got them and what we need," he said, adding that in a lot of cases children are vaccinated, but it just hasn't been properly reported.

Largest outbreak of measles in 30 years

The orders comes at a time when 78 new measles cases were identified in Ontario over the course of two weeks. 

On Thursday, public health officials called it the largest outbreak the province has seen in almost 30 years.

The new cases bring Ontario's total this year to just over 140, far surpassing the 101 total infections recorded in the province between 2013 and 2023.

The epicentre of Ontario's outbreak has been in the Southwestern and Grand Erie public health regions.

Health officials said the concentration of cases in unvaccinated people could explain how quickly the outbreak spread over the last two weeks. 

As a result of the outbreak, 18 kids have been hospitalized in Ontario, including one who required intensive care.

Dr. Sarah Khan, an associate professor in the pediatrics department at McMaster University, said on Thursday that people are at risk because vaccination rates have gone down and it's important that people keep their immunization records up to date.

"It's probably good we all just know our status because if you get that call from public health, they're going to ask you: 'Are you sure you're immune?' And you're going have to provide that proof," Khan said.

"And so, I think it's just better we all kind of check that and get caught up."

Khan said prevention is key to stopping the spread of measles and prevention means vaccination. She said if there is a community that is "entirely non-immune," it will spread rapidly within that community.