After measles outbreak, 350 Hasidic children in Montreal get vaccinated
After five cases of the diseases emerged in the Tosh community in Boisbriand, the public health authority set up two temporary clinics in the area.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFMONTREAL COMBINES modern and old-world styles.(photo credit: DAVID BRINN)
Several hundred children from a Hasidic community in the Montreal region have been vaccinated against measles throughout the summer, the Canadian Jewish News reported on Thursday. After five cases of the disease emerged in the Tosh community in Boisbriand, the public health authority set up two temporary clinics in the area. The immunization was offered to those whose medical records showed that they had not been vaccinated or had not had the necessary boosters. About 350 children received shots. According to CJN, 90 to 95% of the children in the community had been already vaccinated before the clinics were set up and the leaders of the community have been fully cooperating with the health officials. They asked all the community to get vaccines. “We have a few anti-vaxxers; it’s no different from any community,” Isaac Weiss, who is one of the people responsible for public safety in the local Tosh group, told CJN. He added that unvaccinated children would not be allowed into school until the outbreak is contained and that there were no religious reasons to refuse vaccinations, but parents cannot be forced but must be persuaded.
The report added that it was not clear how the outbreak started. Weiss explained that a young member of the community who traveled to New York and whose vaccinations were not up to date might have brought the virus back to the community.Earlier this month, an El Al flight attendant died five months after contracting measles from a passenger on a flight from New York to Tel Aviv in March.
