Health officials in B.C. are reminding adults and parents to confirm their measles vaccine records as outbreaks continue around the world and across Canada.
B.C. remains at five cases since the beginning of 2025, but there have been more than 170 cases across the country. Ontario is experience the highest number of cases, with at least 140 cases since the end of December 2024. The Public Health Agency of Canada's most recent data is up until March March 1, 2025.
Health Minister Josie Osborne and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provided an update on measles vaccines in the province during an update in Victoria Friday (March 28).
While the five confirmed cases in B.C. "may seem low," Osborne said, "we have to be cautious because measles is such a highly contagious disease, leading to serious complications like pneumonia and brain inflammation, and in rare cases, tragically can also be fatal."
"There's no cure, but it is a preventable illness and immunization provides for the best protection against measles."
Henry said the measles outbreaks are a "very concerning global resurgence," especially since it spreads to rapidly and can last in the air for a very long time.
She said the measles vaccine began to be widely administered in B.C, and the rest of Canada, in 1970.
She added that since 1998 measles had been "eliminated" in Canada, which meant there was not ongoing transmission beyond people transmitting it after travelling to other countries. There have been some large outbreaks, including one in 2011 in Quebec where 700 people were infected and on in B.C. in 2014 where 340 were infected in a "largely unimmunized community."
People aged 54 or older 香蕉视频直播� or before before Jan. 1, 1970, are "likely to have immunity from being exposed to the virus when you were younger, especially when you were a child when there was a lot of measles circulating globally," Henry said. That population, she said, doesn't require any additional doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
People born after Jan. 1, 1970, Henry said, need two does of a measles-containing vaccine after a child's first birthday.
"If you have had two doses, then this provides close to 100 per cent protection for the rest of your life, so that's the good news."
Henry said "there are a few groups of people that I'm still concerned about here in B.C."
B.C. moved from a single-dose program in the mid-1990s after officials realized some immunity was waning from a single dose. Two doses were required across Canada in 1996.
Because of that, Henry said anyone born after 1970 need to confirm they've received their second dose. She added the second dose done when students enter school may have been missed in the first years of the pandemic, so children now between the ages of seven and nine may need to have their records double checked.
All five confirmed cases in B.C. are connected to people who travelled to countries where "large" outbreaks are happening, Henry said.
Fraser Health confirmed the two latest travel-related cases on March 7. The two cases were confirmed in the Lower Mainland, connected to another case confirmed the previous day.
Fraser Health says all three cases were acquired by Fraser Health residents who had travelled abroad to Southeast Asia in the same travel party. However, the three cases are unrelated to two other cases 香蕉视频直播� one in Fraser Health and one in Vancouver Coastal Health 香蕉视频直播� identified in February.
