B.C.’s Health minister says a provincial measles immunization ‘catch up’ program has made significant inroads in ensuring school age children are properly vaccinated.

Adrian Dix says there have been a big uptick in the number of vaccinations administered to young people compared to numbers seen last year.

“Health authorities have immunized 15,796 children as part of our campaign. I think that is a significant achievement when you consider that outside of health authorities in doctor’s offices and in pharmacies thousands more immunizations have taken place. This helps us get closer to our goal of ensuring that children are safe around British Columbia.”

He says health authorities have reviewed over half a million health records so far.

“They have found out of that number that approximately 87.6% have received the full immunization, both doses for measles, mumps, and rubella. 7.2% have recieved one dose and 5.1% of that group of individuals have not received any doses of vaccines.”

However he says more work is needed after officials found no records for about 46,000 students.

Dix says officials are working their way through that discrepancy.

In September students reporting to school will be required to submit their vaccination records.