A GTA mother has taken to social media to express anger and frustration over her baby’s possible exposure to measles at a Markham doctor’s office.
In a Facebook post written by Jennifer Hibben-White, the mother of two says she received a call from an official with York Region Public Health on Feb. 9 who informed her that her newborn son Griffin may have been exposed to the measles virus on Jan. 27.
According to the post, she was told that someone who later developed measles sat in the doctor’s waiting room not long before they arrived and that she, her baby and her three-year-old daughter should remain at home until Feb. 17 for a 21-day incubation period.
Although Hibben-White said she had already received the measles vaccine, her toddler only received the first dose and her baby can’t be vaccinated yet.
“... I’m angry. Angry as hell,” Hibben-White wrote in the Facebook post, which has now been shared more than 200,000 times.
“I won’t get angry at or blame the person in the waiting room. I would have likely done the same thing...you get sick, you go to the doctor. I have no idea what their story is and I will never know. But I do know one thing: If you have chosen to not vaccinate yourself or your child, I blame you.”
York Region Public Health confirmed to CP24 that an adult has tested positive for measles. The person, spokesperson Lilian Yuan said, had previously been vaccinated against the virus and is not connected to the six confirmed cases in Toronto.
In an interview with CP24, Yuan said that babies who are breastfed do have some protection against the virus through their mother’s breast milk, provided that the mother has been vaccinated or has had measles before.
Health officials say that most people with measles, which produces symptoms of fever, cough, runny nose and sore throat, are ill for up to 10 days before making a full recovery.
Dr. Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, says the Facebook post has opened up a “very important” conversation about vaccination.
“I really felt for this mother. She has got two very young children,” he said.
“One of the things it tells us all is that when a person makes a decision not to vaccinate, the implications go way beyond just your own children. It really has a social impact in other people’s lives and that is an important consideration.”
The benefits of vaccination, Bowman added, far outweigh any possible risks and he said that the decision not to vaccinate is often based on “misinformation.”
“We are all quoting that really ridiculous autism study. That very study turned out to be fraudulent,” he said.
“The evidence shows very low risk and very high return (with vaccination) from a public health point of view.”
