Alberta's measles case counts have topped 500 and doctors are worried

It has taken Alberta less than three months to top 500 measles cases, fuelling concerns about the speed at which the virus is spreading and fears it could lead to the death of a child.

By midday Wednesday, the province's total case count had surged to 505, more than doubling since the beginning of May.

Alberta's outbreaks began in March.

Dr. Sidd Thakore, a pediatrician at Alberta Children's Hospital, said some of the sickest kids from the south and central zones are ending up at his hospital in Calgary for treatment.

"100 per cent. We are seeing it now," he said.

"There's some severe outcomes whether it's severe pneumonia or more severe issues with … inflammation of the brain. I've seen it myself, several times now in hospital."

According to Thakore, some of these children are ending up in intensive care.

The south zone is by far the hardest hit with 362 measles cases to date. The central zone has had 92 cases.

Alberta Health confirmed on Tuesday one Albertan under the age of 18 was in ICU at that time.

According to Thakore, it's difficult for parents and health care providers to watch children suffer from a vaccine-preventable illness.

"You see the emotional toll it takes on the family and the psychological toll it takes on the family." 

Like most health care providers, he had never treated measles prior to this year's outbreaks. It was declared eliminated in Canada in 1998.

Dr. Stephanie Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta Hospital, is not surprised Alberta's outbreaks have snowballed given that the virus is so highly contagious and immunization rates are far below the level needed for community protection in some parts of the province.

And she's worried about the potential for children to die as the outbreaks grow.

"Statistically, the more cases we have the more likelihood that we will end up seeing a child that dies of measles," she said.

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A toddler died of measles in Ontario last year. And Texas, which has the worst outbreak in the United States, has reported two children have died due to measles this year. Both of them were unvaccinated, according to the state's health department.

The Alberta government's measles website states between one and three in every 1,000 people infected with measles will die.

Publicly available data shows, as of May 10, a total 35 Albertans had been hospitalized since the outbreaks started.

"It's heartbreaking and terrible to see children with severe brain inflammation, severe liver inflammation ... or severe pneumonia … when many of those could have been prevented," Smith said.

"The message is really quite simple: please, please, please get your children vaccinated if you haven't already."

Two doses of the vaccine offer 97- to 98-per cent protection, she said.

The vast majority of Alberta's cases have been among the unimmunized, provincial data shows.

Alberta's routine childhood immunization schedule recommends children receive their first dose of the measles vaccine at 12 months of age and the second at 18 months.

However, babies as young as six months old, who are living in the south, central and north zones, are being offered an early and extra dose due to the level of risk.

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Meanwhile, Smith believes there are likely more cases in the community that haven't been tested or confirmed.

"It  does not appear that we've hit our peak yet. And so I think we'll continue to see this increase in numbers of cases in these  communities where there's very low vaccination rates," she said.

Measles symptoms include:

• High fever.
• Cough.
• Runny nose.
• Red eyes.
• Blotchy, red rash that appears three to seven days after the fever starts. In darker skin colours, it may appear purple or darker than surrounding skin. 

Alberta Health provides detailed information on measles case counts, symptoms and free immunizations here. 

A list of possible exposure alerts can be found here and a measles hotline is available for people with questions about symptoms, immunization records or to book an appointment: 1-844-944-3434