Measles vaccine won’t be available at pharmacies for several weeks: health minister

The health minister may have signed an order Tuesday to “immediately” allow Manitoba pharmacists to administer free measles vaccine, but rolling that out is going to take weeks.

Uzoma Asagwara said Wednesday the province is doing everything it can to expedite the process, which will allow pharmacists to vaccinate Manitobans from the age of two up to the age of 19.

Meanwhile, public health staff are offering information and the vaccine at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon this week — an event that provincial officials warned could be a measles “super spreader.”

“They’re going to be there to meet folks where they’re at,” Asagwara said at an unrelated event in Brandon. Staff at Prairie Mountain Health’s booth are talking to people at the annual agricultural fair about measles, why it’s important to get vaccinated and to provide shots to those who are interested, the minister said.

Measles is one of the most highly communicable infectious diseases and tends to be more severe in infants and young children and can be life-threatening, Manitoba Health says. It can be prevented through immunization.

“This is a really intentional initiative. We’ll be seeing more of that as we move forward,” Asagwara said of the outreach.

The number of cases in Manitoba has been trending upward since the beginning of the year, spurred on by Manitoba Ag Days event in Brandon from Jan. 20 to 22. Dozens of confirmed cases were linked to the event attended by 40,000.

Manitoba had 352 confirmed measles cases at last count reported by Public Health Agency of Canada, compared with a total of 230 cases in the rest of the nation.

“We do not want Manitoba to have the distinction of having the highest number of measles cases in the country,” Asagwara said Monday, hours after Pharmacists Manitoba asked that its members be able to administer free vaccines in an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to slow the spread.

Asagwara said the order, signed Tuesday, would be “effective immediately.”

However the minister’s press secretary said Wednesday that the vaccine will be available “within the coming weeks” once the program is fully rolled out.

“The work really now rests with the pharmacists, with the regulatory body to do everything that they need to do to ensure that pharmacists can deliver those vaccines as quickly as possible,” Asagwara said. “Whatever they need from government in order to make that happen, we’re going to provide that support…. We’re going to make sure they have the tools they need to make sure that happens as quickly as possible.”

A spokesman for Pharmacists Manitoba said the advocacy organization is working with the government on the plan’s implementation.

“Some of those details include allowing pharmacies to order the vaccines to have available, as well as determining how documentation of the vaccines administered will be recorded and shared with other health-care providers and within the whole system,” Britt Kural, pharmacy practice adviser, said in an email.

Making the measles vaccine more readily available to all Manitobans is only part of the battle, Asagwara said earlier in the week, noting there are challenges when it comes to uptake in hard-hit parts of southern Manitoba and the Interlake.

“This is about making sure that we are bringing information to communities in a way they can trust and they’re comfortable with…. But unfortunately, there are a lot of bad actors out there who are putting out false information that is hurting people, that is hurting their trust in vaccines,” said Asagwara.

“Collectively we must work together to make sure that accurate, trusted information — that the evidence — is put out there so people can make decisions that protect themselves and their families.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca