A Halifax doctor says it’s “unconscionable” that Nova Scotia doesn’t have an immunization program for a virus that can cause severe diarrhea in babies and children.
Immunologist Scott Halperin said it would cost the province roughly $1 million a year to provide the oral vaccines that have proved effective in preventing rotavirus infections.
“This is a small amount of money in terms of public programs. Nova Scotia is an outlier, it’s kind of an embarrassment I think,” said Halperin, who noted every other province and territory in Canada has a rotavirus program, as do countries as small as the Dominican Republic.
Halperin and other disease prevention officials have lobbied the province for three years running. While the Health Department has agreed with the need for a public immunization program and has passed on funding requests, those requests haven’t made the cut during the budget process. Halperin also has written Health Minister Randy Delorey and Premier Stephen McNeil to no avail.
“So it’s a political decision, it’s not a health decision any more. Even the deputy minister, and I’m assuming the minster, would have signed off as well (on the recommendation for funding.)”
Halperin is director of the Center for Vaccinology in Halifax, a professor of pediatrics and microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University and the head of pediatric diseases at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
He said while deaths from rotavirus in Nova Scotia are rare, many babies and young children do end up at emergency departments and sometimes have to be hospitalized for intravenous treatments to combat the effects of dehydration that accompany severe diarrhea.
Every baby is likely to contract the virus by two years, Halperin said.
“The virus is very common, it’s around and if you’re not immune to it, you’ll get infected with it,” he said. “Once you’re older, your immunity builds up after a couple of episodes and you tend not to get ... infected. But newborn infants, after they’re exposed, they’re going to get it. Breastfeeding might protect the baby for a few months because they do get some (immunity) protection from breast milk from diarrheal illnesses.”
There are no antiviral treatments. The two oral vaccines are called Rotateq and Rotarix, each of which would cost the government about $70 for each baby, Halperin said. Parents can get the vaccines themselves through their family doctor but it would cost more because governments get a lower negotiated price through agreements with drug companies.
