Canada could lose its status of eradication of measles

(Toronto) A principal medical advisor of the Canada Public Health Agency says that the country could lose its status of eradication of measles if this highly contagious disease continues to spread in the fall.

The D^re Marina Salvadori warned Thursday against this possibility, while the number of cases in Ontario increased by nearly 200 infections, adding that this would only happen if the prolonged propagation continued beyond mid-October 2025.

“It could happen. But I think that when people hear about “loss of eradication status”, they fear a lot that measles will be recovered and will become common, and that we are all exposed to it in the coming decades, “said Mr.^me Salvadori, stressing that this does not necessarily mean that measles is there for good.

Even if eradication status ends, it believes that measles can be eliminated again in the country.

The eradication of measles is the lack of continuous transmission of the disease for 12 months or more in a given geographical area. Canada reached this status in 1998.

Ontario public health reported on Thursday 197 additional infections in last week, bringing the number of probable and confirmed cases in the province to 1440 since the start of the epidemic in October.

The D^re Salvadori said that public health officials met the centers for the control and prevention of diseases in the United States and their public health colleagues in Mexico to discuss the common points of the epidemic, which struck the three countries.

“We are all faced with the same problem and we all work very well together to better understand the situation,” she said.

In Ontario, there are 101 hospitalizations, including 75 children, and eight patients were admitted to intensive care. The D^re Sarah Wilson, Public Health/Medical Epidemiologist for Public Health Ontario, said that hospitalizations represent 7 % of epidemic in the province.

“In my opinion, this is another very clear illustration of how infections by measles can cause very serious complications, and it is absolutely not a banal infection,” said the D^re Wilson.

Alberta announced Thursday that the total number of cases had reached 313 in the province since mid-March, including 19 hospitalizations.

Saskatchewan updated its cumulative number on Thursday at 27 cases. The chief hygienist of the province, the D^r Saqib Shahab, said he expected to see new cases every day in the future.

“Saskatchewan is now part of the unprecedented measles epidemic in North America,” said D^r Shahab at a press conference in Regina.

“We should not see measles in 2025. The fact that we observed hatching in certain communities, as if it was in the 1950s, means that the social security and mutual protection contract is broken,” he deplored.

Manitoba announced on Wednesday, announced that it has reached 24 cases, probable or confirmed. Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories have both pointed out measles earlier this week, their first since the start of the epidemic.

With information from Jeremy Simes, in Regina

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