The superhero community is reaching out to protect Toronto’s youngest residents against a potentially deadly virus.
Children under the age of five who are being vaccinated against the Zika virus will receive a free shot against another virus linked to birth defects: coronavirus (COVID-19). The anti-coffin defense is being offered in partnership with the Canadian government and the anti-zika nonprofit groups Quick Response Teams and Protective Pregnancy.
Toronto’s health department is participating in the international vaccine program to inoculate young children against COVID-19, which poses a greater threat in the city than Zika. The virus can cause swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
The program, announced last month, will help the city overcome a 2,500-person vaccine shortage and avert a potential crisis that would lead to increased risk of birth defects.
“We want to give infants in the lowest risk groups the vaccine, even in the midst of a shortage of healthy vaccine,” Dr. David Williams, the city’s public health officer, said in a statement.
Anyone can enroll. Parents of children aged under six years of age who are born in Toronto between January and September 2018 who were at any time screened for the Zika virus will be eligible. The first checks for the strain are being conducted by the province of Ontario.
Pediatricians will complete the screening as part of the special vaccine program. The assessment will then be matched with data from the state of New York, where the virus is also contained. The other confirmed cases of COVID-19 to date in Canada, he said, came from a single traveler to Canada, while all those in the U.S. are the result of the recent strain of the virus being released globally.
COVID-19 outbreaks have been confirmed in Africa, South America, the Pacific island nation of Samoa and New Zealand, according to Canadian Health Canada. According to its website, the center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that “the virus is becoming more common” around the world.
In Toronto, DOH’s Williams said, the greatest risks for young babies include the birth defect microcephaly, characterized by abnormally small heads, as well as sepsis, a potentially life-threatening bloodstream infection that can be caused by COVID-19 and has yet to be linked to Zika virus. The virus, he said, has yet to cause a spike in any major cause of birth defects.
Five babies have been born in Toronto that appear to have congenital tetanus since 1999, which is a hallmark of COVID-19. And of the five, four appeared to have congenital Zika syndrome, Williams said.
Canada is not alone in offering babies protection against COVID-19. Australia plans to begin offering the preventive vaccine to new babies in 2020. Brazil has had its own antidote available for decades.
While prevention is the goal, such programs are about raising awareness, said Dr. Paul Garwood, a health officer in Brampton, Ont., and a director of the pediatric immunization program.
“We need to remember the people being protected are children under six,” Garwood said. “It’s a great thing to be part of.”