That brings the total of reported cases in the province to 572 since the start of the year.
More than 100 new cases of measles have been reported in Ontario during the past week, bringing the total to 572 cases in the province since the start of the year. Most of those infected were unimmunized children and youth.
Public Health Ontario said Thursday that measles cases were now being reported in 13 public health units across the province, two more than a week earlier.
The outbreak of the highly contagious illness is the largest in Ontario since measles was considered eliminated in Canada in 1998 because of successful vaccination campaigns. Ontario’s outbreak is now bigger than ongoing outbreaks in the United States. Measles is preventable with vaccinations that are part of routine childhood immunization programs.
The vast majority of people infected have been infants, children and adolescents, 93.8 per cent of whom were unimmunized, according to Public Health Ontario. Fewer than one-quarter of the cases were in adults. Forty-two people, mostly children, were hospitalized. There have been no deaths associated with the outbreak in the province.
Although overall percentages of immunization are believed to be as high as the 90s across much of the province, there are pockets where very few people are vaccinated, which has allowed the outbreak to take hold and spread.
Evening Update
In the past week, new cases have been identified in the Region of Waterloo and Lambton, in southwestern Ontario. The highest number of cases are the the Southwestern Public Health unit that covers St. Thomas, Elgin County and Oxford County as well as Grand Erie Public Health covering Haldimand-Norfolk and Brant County.
In the past week, 13 new cases have been reported in the South East Health Unit, which covers Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington in Eastern Ontario.
There have been no cases reported in Ottawa, but health officials across the city are on alert. This week, Dr. Gregory Rose, director of infection prevention and control at Queensway Carleton Hospital, warned that it was only a matter of time until Ottawa saw a case.
Ottawa Public Health has begun weekly wastewater monitoring for measles in the hope that it will give health officials early warning of any cases and might help reduce possible spread. OPH has also increased access to vaccination clinics, especially for people who do not access to primary care.
Ontario’s ongoing outbreak is the largest in the country and comes as the U.S. is experiencing its largest outbreak in years. Health officials say a lack of trust in public health, fed by misinformation, is fueling the rise of vaccine preventable diseases and putting lives at risk.
Public Health Ontario says the outbreak in the province began with exposure to a travel-related case in New Brunswick. Both Ontario and Manitoba have reported cases related to that exposure, many of them in communities with low vaccination rates.
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus. Symptoms include fever, a red blotchy rash, red watery eyes and cough. It can be deadly and debilitating in some cases and presents a threat to people with compromised immune systems or infants too young to be vaccinated.
More information on measles is available online at ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/measles-red-measles.aspx and immunization parentinginottawa.ca/en/immunizations.aspx.
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