At-home vaccinations available in N.B. this month

Local parents hoping to get their children vaccinated will soon be able to do so at home with the help of the Prairie North Health Region’s van.

Staff members will start travelling in the immunization van later this month to offer children under the age of seven in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake regions vaccines along with healthy growth and development screening.

Public Health Nursing Clinical Supervisor Danielle Radchenko said Prairie North has a lower immunization rate and the region has seen the return of diseases not seen in some time, including whooping cough in the Meadow Lake area. The health region created the van in 2011.

“We just want to make it as easy and accessible as possible for families to protect their children and to help protect other people who can’t be protected,” she said. “Although we might not make it a priority to immunize our children that are healthy and able to vaccinate, it does sometimes affect those that can’t vaccinate their children because they’re sick or have medications they take.”