Vaccinations work.
That was the message from Dr. Shanker Nesathurai recently to the board of health.
The medical officer of health focused on measles to illustrate his point.
“Imagine if I had measles today. I had measles sitting at this meeting,” he said to the board. “A person can transmit measles before the visibility of a skin rash.”
He said the room would have been contaminated by the airborne virus for about two hours after the meeting was over and everyone in attendance would have been exposed.
In that case, CK Public Health would contact everyone who was in the room.
“For anyone vaccinated, they can carry on with their lives. They are very unlikely to get measles,” Nesathurai said. “But if someone was not vaccinated – say a pregnant mother – there could be a poor outcome for the mother and the unborn child. And for all the other unvaccinated, that would mean a period of isolation away from their friends and family.”
He stressed that for measles, a person can still get the vaccine even after exposure.
Last year, 180 people came down with measles in Chatham-Kent, he said. Across Ontario, about seven per cent of the people who contracted measles had to be hospitalized.
“The best protection against measles is vaccination,” Nesathurai said.
With all vaccinations, he urged parents to keep the school boards and CK Public Health up to date on children’s vaccination history.
When Public Health sends home the warning notes that children could be suspended over vaccination issues, Nesathurai said in most cases, the kids have been vaccinated, but records were not updated.
“The vast majority are vaccinated, but we just don’t have those reports,” he said. “The most recent data indicates that 95 per cent of 17 year olds are up to date (with their vaccinations) in Chatham-Kent. And one of the reasons why we did not have widespread transmission of measles (in 2025) is because the majority of the population is vaccinated.”
CK Public Health recently issued 1,734 first-notice letters to parents and guardians of students with incomplete immunization records. Under Ontario’s Immunization of School Pupils Act, students are required to be vaccinated against – or have a valid exemption for – diseases such as tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, and chicken pox.
“Approximately a quarter of the first notices were mailed to families with children starting Kindergarten,” Nesathurai said.
For any parent or guardian who received such a letter, CK Public Health officials ask that you review the child’s immunization records to confirm they are complete; contact your health-care provider or reach out to the school health team (through CK Public Health) for options for missing vaccinations; and when updated, submit the immunization info to CK Public Health online at ckphu.com/child-immunizations, over the phone at 519-352-7270 ext. 2457 or by mail.
The first-notice letters are phase one in the process to update records. If those records remain incomplete, a suspension order will be issued March 10.
