Health officials in three Ontario hotspots for measles are focusing on communication and vaccination to help get the outbreaks under control.
Public Health Ontario on Thursday reported 89 new cases of measles since March 26, bringing the province’s total of confirmed and probable cases this year to 655. They have been linked to a travel-related case in New Brunswick.
“The sharp increase… is due to continued exposures and transmission among individuals who have not been immunized,” the report’s authors wrote.
In the Southwestern Public Health region — which includes the communities of St. Thomas, Woodstock as well as Elgin and Oxford counties — there are 43 new cases, the largest increase in the province for the most recent reporting period.
Measles is “one of the most contagious illnesses globally, and currently the most effective way to safely prevent measles is through vaccination,” said Dr. Ninh Tran, the region’s medical officer of health.
Tran’s team is focusing on offering vaccinations to those who are susceptible to contracting the disease. People who’ve never had measles or the vaccine, or only one dose of it, are considered susceptible.
“Unlike the flu or COVID vaccine, which is mainly to lessen the severity of an infection, two doses of measles-containing vaccine prevents the infection altogether,” Tran said.
The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine that contains a weakened version of the measles virus to generate strong, lifelong immunity without causing serious disease in people with healthy immune systems, officials say.
The number of cases is generally believed to be underestimated, given that not everyone with measles seeks testing or medical care.
Meanwhile, in the neighbouring Grand Erie Public Health region — which includes Brantford and largely rural communities to the south — officials ran a vaccination clinic this week above a hockey arena in Caledonia.
Rachel Vaarkamp brought her five-year-old, Tyse, to get the measles shot.
“We don’t have a family doctor right now and realized that it was time to [get] his vaccinations and then seeing there’s been measles cases in the area, wanted to get it done for him,” Vaarkamp said.
Sarah Titmus helped run the pop-up clinic, and works to address vaccine hesitancy among what she says is a small number of people.
“I think the bottom line is that we all have our own values and beliefs,” Titmus said. “What we do is we provide the most evidence-based information that we can so that people can make an informed decision as to whether a vaccine is right for them.”
At the Chatham-Kent Public Health unit, which has counted four new cases since March 26, officials are emphasizing education. To stop those who’ve already been exposed to measles from infecting others, a local hospital invited people to an education session in an isolation room, separate from the emergency department.
“We could see large groups in there and they wouldn’t have to come into the hospital, into any of our waiting rooms,” said Adam Topp, president and CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
Topp says people known to have had contact with measles were advised about how long they should quarantine and places they should avoid so as not to infect others, as well as recommendations on what to do if family members get very sick from measles.
People who came to the sessions were offered vaccination or — if they were ineligible because of pregnancy or age, for example — alternate treatment, Topp said. Measles post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) includes intramuscular or IV immune globulin to help protect against infection or reduce severity of the illness.
Fever, rash, cough
Dr. Jacqueline Wong, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, says it is not surprising cases continue to rise, given how contagious measles is.
Based on Public Health Ontario’s most recent report, “the number of new cases seems to be plateauing, which might be a positive sign,” Wong told CBC News. “But it’s a bit early to say whether we are going to start to see decreases soon.”
The symptoms include fever, a red blotchy rash, red watery eyes and cough. The illness can be serious, and three of the people in Ontario have been in intensive care.
Elsewhere in Canada, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. have also reported increases in measles cases this year.
