There’s been a dramatic increase in the number of measles cases in Ontario, reaching a 10-year high. Since October of last year, hundreds of cases have been reported.
It’s not just Ontario; it’s happening in other provinces as well. Just in the past couple of months there have been more than 250 confirmed cases and another 65 probable cases. Public Health in Ontario says since the end of February the number of cases has almost doubled in the province. 75 percent of the cases have been in children and adolescents, most of them unvaccinated.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch is an infectious disease specialist in Toronto.
“There are pockets within Canada, and of course, in Ontario that are under-vaccinated. And this virus is so transmissible that it will find and exploit those pockets,” Bogoch said.
Bogoch says a community needs to have a vaccination rate of about 95 percent if it wants to prevent transmission.
“There’s a myth that it’s a benign childhood illness, nothing is further from the truth. Measles still kills about a hundred thousand people on the planet every year. The vast majority of those are children,” Bogoch said.
Health authorities say exposures can take place in a region at any time, even though there have been only a couple of cases in Toronto. They say the best way to limit any spread of the illness is through vaccination. Children with two doses of the vaccine are nearly one hundred percent protected and are considered fully immunized.
The World Health Organization says there were fewer immunizations for measles during the Covid 19 pandemic, so cases of measles have risen significantly over the past couple of years, especially in countries where they have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
