Canada: doctors ask to step up vaccination efforts to contain measles outbreaks

Doctors in Ontario and Alberta are calling on public health authorities to intensify vaccination efforts as measles outbreaks in the two provinces continue to grow. As of May 2, Alberta reported 210 confirmed measles cases, while those in Ontario were over 1200, with 223 new confirmed and probable infections recorded over the past week. According to Sarah Wilson, a public health physician with Public Health Ontario, it is the largest single-week increase since the beginning of the outbreak in October 2024. Most cases in Ontario are in the southwestern part of the province, especially the city of St. Thomas and its surrounding counties. So far, 84 people have been hospitalized, and eight have needed intensive care treatment. In Alberta, Dr. Mark Joffe, the province’s former chief medical officer, has accused local authorities of “a complete failure of leadership” in containing the disease.
The current outbreaks are mainly the product of low vaccination rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine misinformation online. In Ontario, for example, vaccination coverage was just 24.6% in the 2022-23 school year in Halton Region. Only the area around Kingston reached the 95% of immunizations necessary to prevent an outbreak. In Alberta, no area reached that threshold during the same school year. According to Dr. Joanna Oda, an associate medical officer of health for Halton Region, COVID-19 disrupted routine childhood vaccinations, limiting in-person appointments and diverting healthcare resources to other sectors. Despite the end of the pandemic, these issues persist and continue to hamper vaccination efforts even among willing families. Michael Gardam, an infectious diseases physician based at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, emphasized instead the negative role played by anti-vaccine misinformation on social media and asked public authorities to do more to encourage people to get vaccinated. According to Dr. Joffe, healthcare professionals should bring information about measles to people who do not interact closely with public authorities, speak their language, and engage in dialogue. On this point, Dr. Allison Gonsalves, a medical officer with Alberta Health Services in the province’s South Zone, and her team have been discussing vaccine concerns with families in communities with particularly low immunization uptake, registering positive results in the past few weeks.