On November 10, 2025, Canada as a whole had its measles elimination status revoked. This reversal followed the country suffering through an outbreak for more than a year. This is a huge turn of events for the only country that had held its elimination status since 1998. The loss of this status is a deep cause for concern for public health. Vaccination rates for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) have been on the decline well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization, countries that have eliminated measles are known as measles-free. This is triggered when the country has no indigenous cases for an uninterrupted 12 month period. Canada’s recent outbreak has undone this progress. Public health experts are eager to stress that the drop in vaccination rates, worsened by the pandemic, has put whole communities at risk from this disease.
Measles is well known for its complications, putting patients at risk for commonplace bacterial super infections often necessitating the use of antibiotics. Given that antibiotic resistance rates have more than doubled since 1998, the real-life effects of this recovery are very troubling.
“It is an embarrassment that with all our resources we weren’t able to stop the resurgence of measles,” – Dawn Bowdish
Now that it has lost its embarrassing elimination status, Canada is making moves. Travelers are now being given advance notice to ensure their measles vaccinations are current before traveling there. Measles was one of the top killers in the pre-vaccine, pre-antibiotic era, accounting for more deaths than influenza at times. Yet today, measles is still the leading cause of death from vaccine-preventable infections worldwide.
People who get measles still have to deal with that immediate risk to their health and well-being and long-term effects of infection. Surveys indicate that individuals who have experienced measles are more regular users of healthcare services. They are given more antibiotic prescriptions and suffer from other infections for months or sometimes years after their infection. This long-term effect of violence makes prevention all the more necessary.
Experts urge that we continue to invest in public health initiatives and outreach efforts. Further, they call for a national vaccine registry to get Canada back to its elimination status. Restoring confidence in immunization among populations that are suspicious of vaccines is absolutely essential. Decades of research show that building long-term relationships is key to overcoming vaccine hesitancy.
In addition, many provinces — including Ontario — have experienced the negative impact of unfettered vaccine exemptions as they’ve led to decreasing vaccination rates. Getting back to elimination status is sure to be a long and arduous process. To get there, experts say Canada will need to keep up an unbroken stretch of no outbreaks for a minimum of twelve months.
