Measles outbreak 'just a plane ride away,' Manitoba health official warns

Doctors in Manitoba are urging people to protect themselves against measles as health officials across the country warn a rise in cases in Europe and elsewhere could spell a potential outbreak here.

The World Health Organization is warning there were 42,200 measles cases in Europe last year — more than 40 times the 941 cases in 2022.

Health officials elsewhere in Canada have told CBC News it's only a matter of time before cases start rising in this country.

Dr. Raj Bhardwaj says the viral infection can lead to lung infections, a weakened immune system, blindness, deafness, brain damage and even death.

"You can catch the virus ... with infected mucus or infected surfaces like toys, but mostly through the air, just like COVID," Bhardwaj said in an interview this week with CBC Manitoba's Information Radio.

"It can live on surfaces for a couple of hours. It hangs in the air for a couple of hours, even after an infected person leaves an area," he said.

"And it's so contagious that if one person has measles, over 90 per cent of the non-immune people around that infected person will become infected."

Bhardwaj said there are many factors behind the re-emergence of measles, the biggest one being the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting regular vaccination programs.

"The public health folks were very busy getting COVID vaccinations done. A lot of vaccination programs throughout the world are run through schools and a lot of schools were closed," he said.

"So our herd immunity has dropped off. And for herd immunity to work for measles, we figure that we need upwards of 95 per cent of people immune."

Province worried about vaccination drop

Dr. Davinder Singh, a provincial medical officer of health, said vaccination rates for measles in Manitoba did drop after the start of the pandemic.

Singh said 78.1 per cent of two-year-olds in the province had the vaccine at the end of 2022, compared to about 85.5 per cent in 2020.

"Unfortunately, [the pandemic] led to access issues related to immunizing," he said.

"We did note the decrease in immunization rates for early childhood immunizations earlier … which is why you may have seen some of the efforts that were undertaken by Public Health to increase those immunization rates last year."

Singh said parents of children born between 2019 and 2021 who didn't have their measles vaccine are getting notices telling them they're overdue for one. There have also been increased outreach activities to connect with those families, he said.

Bhardwaj said people who were born in or after 1970 should make sure they've had two measles vaccinations so they have full immunity. Besides getting the vaccine, he recommended people practise good hand hygiene and wear a mask in crowded indoor situations or when travelling.

Singh said the province is always prepared for a measles outbreak, though he added it is "a significant worry that a case of measles is just a plane ride away."

It's particularly important for adults who are travelling to have documentation on whether they're immunized for measles, he said.

"We're fortunate enough not to have any local spread of measles in Canada, or cases — when we do know them — are coming from travellers … from destinations where there is measles activity," Singh said.

"What's defined as an outbreak really just depends on what the disease is that you're talking about. But because we don't have any measles here, even one case would be considered an outbreak."

The last reported case of measles in Manitoba happened in 2019, Singh said.