Fraser Health is holding an immunization clinic at Carver Christian High School in Burnaby today (April 2) after four students at the school contracted measles on a cultural outreach trip to China last month.
The students were among a group of 10 Grade 11 students from the school that returned from a 10-day trip on Air China Flight CA991 March 21.
“They were diagnosed immediately when they came back because they had fevers just leaving China,” Carver principal Paul Tigchelaar told the NOW. “The doctors there thought it was the flu.”
Tigchelaar said the Grade 8 to 12 private school, which has just under 200 students, has been in close daily contact with Fraser Health and parents.
Through the health authority, parents and family doctors, Tigchelaar said the school confirmed that the members of the China team who didn’t show symptoms of measles had received double shots against the disease; they were allowed to attend school March 30.
“Those few that did test positive for measles were permitted back to school when they were deemed non-contagious,” Tigchelaar said.
Fraser Health would not comment on whether any of the students who contracted the disease had had either full or partial immunization against measles.
The clinic Thursday was to ensure the whole student population had a complete set of vaccinations.
“If there’s a student with one shot, they’d give a second,” Tigchelaar said. “If there, heaven forbid, are any students who don’t have a shot, they’d give them their first shot and then their booster later.”
News of the measles cases drew a crowd of media to the school Thursday morning, and the Carver principal was concerned about comparisons being drawn to outbreaks at other Christian schools, like Mt. Cheam Christian in Chilliwack – an ultra-orthodox religious school that was the epicentre of a measles outbreak last spring with more than 400 confirmed cases in four weeks.
“The way it could really spin out of control is if they said, ‘OK, it’s a Christian school. Do Christian families have a higher rate of not wanting immunizations?’ and I don’t believe that is true,” Tigchelaar said.
According to the Carver principal, not all Christian schools are alike.
“We’re not two blades of grass,” he said. “We’re an apple and an elephant sometimes.”
Fraser Health is advising passengers on Air China Flight CA991 to review their immunization status.
People born before 1957 are considered immune, and do not need a vaccine. Those born between 1957 and 1970 should have one dose, and those born after 1970 should have two doses of measles-containing vaccine to be protected.
