School Program - Optional Vaccines

Hepatitis B School-Based Program

Hepatitis B is a virus which can permanently damage your liver. It’s the biggest cause of liver cancer. You need your liver to digest food and remove waste from your body. There are around 150 cases reported in Ontario each year. People with Hep B often become tired, feverish, lose their appetite, and sometimes get yellow skin and eyes (called jaundice). There may be many more people with Hep B. You can get it and not even know it. That means you can infect someone else without knowing.

HOW YOU CAN CATCH HEP B?

You can get Hep B through the blood and other body fluids of an infected person. Therefore, you can pick it up from intimate contact, through used needles, and through body/ear piercing or tattooing with dirty equipment.

There is no cure for Hepatitis B BUT it can be prevented.

In 1994, the Ministry of Health made available, to all Grade seven students in Ontario, a voluntary hepatitis B school-based vaccination program. It is offered at an age before most chances of being exposed to the virus occur.

This vaccine consists of two doses. A nurse from the Public Health Unit will come to the school some time between October to December to administer the first dose and again four to six months later to administer the second dose.

In the fall, a consent form to receive this vaccine will be sent home with your child from school. If your child misplaces, loses or fails to bring the form home follow the link below to print out a new form to be filled and sent with the child to school or simply drop it off at the Public Health Unit and your child will receive this vaccine at the school clinic.

If your child is absent for the school immunization clinic and catch up clinic please contact the Public Health Unit to make an appointment to have your child immunized.

Hepatitis B Consent Form

For more information on Hepatitis B please follow the link below:
(Fact Sheet)

Meningococcal School-Based Program

Invasive meningococcal disease is caused by the bacteria Neissera meningitides. It can cause meningitis (swelling of the lining of the brain and spinal cord) or meningococcernia (blood infection). People with invasive meningococcal disease may have a fever, a severe headache, a stiff neck, nausea, vomiting and sometimes a rash. Meningococcal disease most commonly occurs in children under 5 years of age and adolescents between 15-19 years of age.

The disease can be treated with antibiotics; however, meningococcal disease can be serious and about 5-15% of people who become ill can die.

Bacteria that cause meningococcal disease can be spread by kissing, sharing eating utensils, coughing, sneezing and other contact where saliva is passed from one person to another.

THERE IS A PREVENTION

Meningococcal C-conjugate vaccine provides greater than 92-97% protection against Neisseria meningitides serogroup C, the bacteria that accounts for 30% of meningococcal meningitis cases in Canada. Serogroup C is the group commonly responsible for outbreaks of meningitis in schools and universities.

In 2004, the Ministry of Health made available, to all Grade seven students and youth aged 15-19 in Ontario who had not yet received the vaccine, a voluntary Meningococcal C school-based vaccination program. It is offered at an age before most chances of being exposed to the bacteria occur. After the 2006-2007 school year, only grade 7 students will be targeted to receive the meningococcal-C conjugate vaccine at school based clinics. If your 15-19 year old child did not receive this vaccine please contact the Porcupine Health Unit to make an appointment.

This vaccine consists of one dose which is usually given by a nurse from the Public Health Unit at the same time as the second dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is given (usually in the spring).

If your child is absent for the school immunization clinic and catch up clinic please contact the Public Health Unit to make an appointment to have your child immunized.

Meningococcal Consent Form

For more information on Meningococcal please follow the link below:
(Fact Sheet)

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) School-Based Immunization Program

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted virus and causes cervical cancer. About 70 per cent of adults will have had at least one genital HPV infection over their lifetime. In addition to cancer, HPV can cause genital warts.

Every year, about 500 women in Ontario are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and 140 will die from the disease. Across Canada, about 1,400 females are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and about 400 will die from the disease.

HPV Vaccine

In July 2006, Health Canada approved a new HPV vaccine which provides protection against four types of HPV, two of which are responsible for about 70 per cent of cervical cancers. The vaccine is most effective when given to females before they become sexually active and are exposed to HPV infection. This vaccine is currently licensed for use in females aged 9 to 26 years.

HPV Vaccination Program

Beginning this fall, the three-dose HPV vaccine will be offered to about 84,000 young women in Grade eight. This school-based vaccination program will be administered by public health nurses. The vaccination will be voluntary. This initiative represents an investment of $117 million over three years. The funding for today’s announcement is being provided through a recent federal budget initiative.

Educational materials on HPV, cervical cancer and the vaccination program will be developed and provided to young women and their families, along with consent forms in advance of the scheduled vaccination clinic. Consent to receive the vaccination will be addressed in the same manner as other voluntary school-based vaccine programs.

A consent form to receive this vaccine will be sent home with your daughter from school. If your child misplaces, loses or fails to bring the form home follow the link below to print out a new form to be filled and sent with the child to school or simply drop if off at the Public Health Unit and your child will receive this vaccine at the school clinic.

If your child is absent for the school immunization clinics and catch up clinic please contact the Public Health Unit to make an appointment to have your child immunized.