The Kitimat Community Foundation stepped in with a grant of nearly $11,000 to ensure that Grade 12 students throughout the district can receive free meningitis shots.
The grant was made to the MeningitisBC.org Society which has campaigned across the province to ensure that students whose families cannot afford the vaccination are able to get it for free.
This year’s group of Grade 12 students are the last group of students that were born before 2002 who weren’t deemed eligible by the provincial government to receive the vaccination free of charge.
The $ 10,696 grant from Kitimat Community Foundation (KCF) will be used to cover the coast of the MCV4 meningitis vaccine, which protects against four strains of meningitis (A, C, W and Y), to every Grade 12 student from Kitimat and Kitamaat Village.
READ MORE: High court orders new trial for parents convicted in toddler’s meningitis death
MeningitisBC.org Society founder Janet Munro lost her son in 2011 after he contracted the Y-strain’s. She said the W-strain is the strain responsible for a meningitis outbreak in the Okanagan in 2018.
“The outbreak in the Okanagan last year drained the supply of the MCV4 vaccine and we have been waiting since September 2018 to secure this vaccine,” said Munro.
The vaccinations will be administered to students who have signed up by Save On Foods’ pharmacist Cherry Parado in the pharmacy on May 29 starting at 2 p.m.
Munro said any students not able to make the May 29 clinic can still register with Parado or a family doctor to receive the vaccination at a later date.
