In a major embarrassment, Canada has lost its measles-free status, a year after measles started spreading. Canada has logged 5,138 measles cases this year and two deaths. Both were babies who were exposed to the measles virus in the womb and born prematurely. In 1998, Canada attained the measles-free status followed by the United States two years later. After hugely successful vaccination campaigns, the Americas became the first region in the world to be free of measles in 2016. Experts from the Pan American Health Organization, an independent health agency, made the determination on Canada’s status after analyzing data on Canada’s outbreaks that showed the virus has spread continuously for a year.“While transmission has slowed recently, the outbreak has persisted over 12 months, primarily within under-vaccinated communities,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement Monday. “Canada can re-establish its measles elimination status once transmission of the measles strain associated with the current outbreak is interrupted for at least 12 months,” it added.
What does it mean to Canadians?
McMaster University immunologist Dawn Bowdish told the National Post that it does not change anything for Canadians but it is a national embarrassment. “It doesn’t change the average Canadian’s day-to-day life, what it does mean is that one of the most debilitating and deadly childhood infections is present in our lives again,” Bowdish said. “It should be a national embarrassment to join a list of countries whose public health systems have been torn apart by war or civil unrest, but the more immediate tragedy is that we will see more lost pregnancies, more premature babies and more children who won’t ever grow to their full potential due to the terrible and short and long-term effects of measles.”
Is US the next?
The US won the status in 2000, but is at risk as a large outbreak killed three and sickened nearly 900 across Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma is over. Current outbreaks in the US include 34 cases in South Carolina and one hitting towns on the Arizona-Utah border that has sickened more than 150 since mid-August.
