The long and winding road to improving immunization rates: Sharing best practices in Canada

Abstract

Vaccines are one of the most effective ways to decrease childhood mortality. Unfortunately, however, Canada placed 28th out of 29 high-income countries in a 2013 UNICEF report that compared national uptake rates of early childhood immunizations. Work is underway to address this issue as reflected in the 2016 federal budget which highlights the importance of improving access to immunization. There are many steps that can be taken to improve vaccine uptake, such as identifying and better understanding the individual and program level factors that underlie delay or refusal to receive vaccines. However, it is challenging to find evidence and ensure its relevancy within the Canadian context. Targeted resources are needed that address the complexity of immunization along the entire continuum from vaccine manufacture through to patient uptake. Although there is a lot of information relevant to Canada, it has not been gathered together in one "go to" site and it is not curated. Canada needs a solid, easily accessible, user-friendly platform for sharing what works in immunization with health care professionals as well as parents and patients. This platform would be a major step in facilitating vaccine acceptance in Canada.

Routine childhood vaccination rates in an academic family health team before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a pre–post analysis of a retrospective chart review

“…Reasons for incomplete vaccine coverage in children, before the COVID-19 pandemic have received much attention in the literature. 16,17 Our study was not designed to probe into specific factors that may account for reductions in childhood vaccination rates. Rather, we aimed to report early childhood vaccination rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Helping Québec Pharmacists Seize the Vaccination Service Opportunity: The Pharmacy Best Practice Workshops

“…Additionally, the issue of "vaccine hesitancy" (i.e., delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability) is a well-recognized problem in Canada and globally [13]. As noted by Macdonald (2016) [7], it has become increasingly difficult to ensure timely acceptance of vaccines by provincial and territorial immunization programs or front-line health care professionals. Furthermore, providing more public information on the benefits of vaccines is not enough, and overselling by emphasizing the facts about the benefits and disease risks ostensibly leads to further hesitancy and suboptimal vaccine uptake [14,15].…”

“…Despite efforts by health authorities to encourage more vaccinations, suboptimal uptake of vaccines remains both an ongoing Canadian and global issue [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. In addition to pediatric immunization efforts, the Canadian Immunization Guide (CIG) advises that prevention of infectious diseases by immunization should be pursued throughout life, and that all adults should be appropriately vaccinated [ 7 , 8 ]. Reasons for adult vaccinations include booster doses, updates to current vaccinations, changes in sexual risk behaviour, risk of professional exposure, and travel and immigration [ 8 , 9 ].…”