Jackie McCoubrey remembers long days that ran into each other as she and her sister lay feverish in a dark room as their mom fretted outside.
“There are days that we have no memory of. We were in this blacked out room for a very long time and the doctor came, every day. We were so sick. There was a pail in our bedroom to go to the washroom,” said McCourbrey, now 64 and still living in rural Elgin County as she did when she was a child with measles.
“I remember the first time I was able to leave the room to go to the bathroom and when they opened the curtains in the bedroom. We were quite weak.” Children with measles were kept in dark rooms because it was thought because it was thought that exposure to light while sick could cause blindness, she said.
McCoubrey and her older sister were five and six years old when they got measles. It was sometime between 1965 and 1967, and a very scary time for the girls’ mother. “She said it was an absolutely horrifying time.”
Now, McCoubrey is watching with horror as the disease, largely preventable with vaccinations, is spreading in her community, 60 years later.
In the region covered by Southwestern Public Health, which includes Aylmer, St. Thomas and Tillsonburg, public health says:
- 115 cases of measles since October
- 10 people hospitalized
- Three-quarters of infections in children
- Majority of people infected unvaccinated
For months, the health authority has been urging people to get vaccinated and has warned of possible exposures, usually at walk-in clinics or hospitals where people with measles show up for treatment.
A recent exposure happened at the East Elgin Community Centre, a recreational complex in Aylmer, where a children’s hockey tournament took place.
Measles was declared eradicated in Canada in 1998, but with vaccination rates dropping, new cases are surging; 95 people have been infected in just the first two months of this year, compared to 147 for all of 2024.
Most recently, the Middlesex London Health Unit warned anyone not vaccinated or with a compromised immune system who was in Value Village on Wellington Road South between 10:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. on March 1 to call them because of possible exposure.
Measles has been on the minds of those living in and around the region, said Rob Angione, the principal at Immanuel Christian School in Aylmer.
“It’s definitely something that we talk about and that we’re monitoring,” he said. “Thankfully, we have not had any cases here but we’re a small community of 57 families, so there’s a lot of communication going on.”
Angione has been reassuring families that the school follows public health guidelines and encourages vaccinations.
“The community does look out for each other,” he said. “We’re definitely monitoring the situation and sharing things that come from the health unit.”
The same thing is happening at Milestones Children’s Centre, a daycare with a location in St. Thomas and another in Aylmer, said executive director Dawn Blake.
“We take in kids from birth to age four. It’s something that parents and staff are talking about. We haven’t had any cases and we’re following everything that the health unit says,” Blake said.
Parents are asking about protocols to protect their children, and staff who want to make sure that they’re not being exposed to the virus as well, she added.
The Church of God in Aylmer has closed its school to prevent measles from spreading, a person who answered the phone at the school said. Pastor Henry Hildebrandt did not return calls or emails asking for more information.
McCoubrey, who remembers the agony of the virus, has recently gotten a booster shot.
“These things are coming back because people won’t vaccinate. That’s just not right because so many people cannot get the vaccination because they’re immuno-compromised or pregnant. I vaccinated all my kids, all my grandchildren are vaccinated. This vaccine has been around for a long time.” .
