Today, Ontario health officials have officially declared the measles outbreak over. This brings to a close a difficult summer where more than 2,300 people became infected in the province. The PFIS case outbreak started on 18 October 2022 after exposure to a single case in New Brunswick. The challenge went on to include all 26 local public health units in Ontario. The majority of these infections were found in unvaccinated infants, children, and adolescents.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, announced the end of the outbreak during a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto. Corrigan underscored the severity of measles, referring to it as a “serious and highly contagious disease. To prevent future outbreaks from occurring, Dr. Moore encourages residents to make sure their measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccinations are up to date.
The outbreak indirectly resulted in the death of one newborn in southwestern Ontario who developed measles in utero. Because the mother, who was unvaccinated, had to deliver prematurely, the infant’s death was attributed to the mother. This tragic case is a reminder of the peril that can arise out of vaccine hesitancy.
This was particularly striking when the data revealed that close to 3/4 of all infected individuals were infants, children, and adolescents. Shockingly, more than 96% of people impacted had not received their vaccine. The peak number of infected people was 2,375—an indication of a serious public health crisis that impacted countless American families.
In his visit to Togo, Dr. Moore doubled down on the power of vaccination in the fight against this disease.
“Two doses of the MMR vaccine offer nearly 100 per cent protection and have been safely used for decades,” – Dr. Kieran Moore.
While this outbreak can now be declared over, Ontario has seen 43 new cases of measles this year. These new cases are unrelated to the past outbreak. Each of these cases is a reminder of our vulnerability to future outbreaks and of the need to ensure that we have very high vaccination rates.
In 1998, Canada could boast that measles had been eliminated. Now, officials are sounding the alarm that the country is on the path to losing this status if vaccination rates fail to increase. The current trend indicates that Canada may lose this status by October 27 if measures are not taken to increase immunization coverage.
