The Pan American Health Organization stripped Canada’s measles elimination status this week, which Algoma Public Health says is an ‘important reminder’ to continue educating people on the effectiveness of vaccines <\/p>\n
After eradicating the disease close to three decades ago, Canada has officially lost its measles-free status \u2013 which Algoma Public Health says is a \u201cwake-up call\u201d locally and around the country.<\/p>\n
The Pan American Health Organization stripped Canada\u2019s measles elimination status on Monday after it failed to stop an outbreak that began in 2024, which saw the resurgent disease spread through communities across the country over the past year.<\/p>\n
As of Nov. 1, Canada has seen 5,162 measles cases so far this year, with 2,393 cases in Ontario and 151 locally in the Algoma Region \u2013 though there has not been a local case since July.<\/p>\n
Prior to this outbreak, Canada held the measles elimination status since 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing our elimination status is an important reminder that protecting our communities from infectious disease is an ongoing process that requires continuous investment in public health programs and services at all levels,\u201d said Dr. John Tuinema, associate medical officer of health with APH.<\/p>\n
\u201cVaccination works exceptionally well \u2013 and we saw this play out in real time with our local outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to maintain herd immunity from measles, over 95 per cent of the population needs to be immunized, Tuinema said.<\/p>\n
Most recent data shows that 86.6 per cent of seven-year-olds and 96.5 per cent of 17-year-olds have been immunized for measles in the Algoma region \u2013 the latter of which meets the threshold for herd immunity.<\/p>\n
Locally, measles primarily spread in specific communities with low immunization rates, with the remainder of the Algoma region well-protected by strong vaccine coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal outbreaks can still occur when there are pockets of the population with much lower immunization rates than the rest of the region,\u201d Tuinema said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA small community with low immunization rates saw measles affect their community significantly, whereas the rest of Algoma had strong herd immunity and did not see any cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuinema did not specify which community or communities were affected by measles in the Algoma region. He said the health unit worked closely with those impacted to help combat misinformation, provide education, and increase immunization rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, there continues to be misinformation about vaccines which can result in hesitancy when deciding to be vaccinated,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When vaccination rates fall low enough, outbreaks can occur if measles makes its way into that community.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring our local outbreak, we worked closely with a community that had a low immunization rate. By working closely and building trust with this community, a significant number of people who were previously vaccine hesitant chose to be immunized,\u201d Tuinema said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will go a long way in protecting their community and the region as a whole against future outbreaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Canada lost its measles elimination status this week, Tuinema said work to increase immunization rates was already underway well before the current outbreak happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent loss of Canada\u2019s measles elimination status is further evidence that we need to continue these efforts, not just for measles but for all vaccine-preventable diseases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Losing elimination status is an important reminder to \u201censure we have high levels of immunization nation-wide.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResponding to an outbreak is much more costly than the small cost of an immunization,\u201d Tuinema\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every $1 spent on measles immunization, $16 is saved in health-care costs. This is particularly important now with our health-care services currently under significant strain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pan American Health Organization stripped Canada’s measles elimination status this week, which Algoma Public Health says is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-276984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}