More than 400 Manitoba infants got measles vaccine since eligibility expanded: province

More than 400 children under the age of one have received the measles vaccine in Manitoba since the government expanded eligibility for the shot last month due to a growing number of cases. 

The province announced on May 14 that infants between the ages of six and 12 months old living in the Southern Health and the Interlake-Eastern health authority regions would be eligible to get the measles, mumps and rubella (or MMR) vaccine, as can those who travel regularly or have close contact with people in those regions.

That eligibility was further expanded earlier this month to include infants who have been evacuated from their communities because of ongoing wildfires in Manitoba, and may be staying in southern areas of the province that have seen outbreaks of the highly contagious disease. 

Before the province expanded the eligibility, kids six to 12 months old could only get one dose of the vaccine if they were travelling to a "measles-endemic country." 

On Friday, a provincial spokesperson confirmed that approximately 450 infants between the ages of six and 12-months old in Manitoba have received the MMR vaccine since May 14.

The province stressed that the 450 number represents "preliminary data," and that there could be more children vaccinated since May 14 whose data has not yet been entered into Manitoba's immunization registry. 

In the Southern Health region, which encompasses a large area of southern Manitoba, the health authority confirmed that 104 MMR vaccinations have been given to children between the ages of six and 12 months old since the May eligibility expansion.

According to the province, the decision to expand the eligibility came due to a growing number of cases of the highly infectious disease in Manitoba recently. 

According to the most recent provincial data, there have been 98 confirmed and eight probable measles cases in the province this year, as of June 7.

In May alone, Manitoba reported 72 confirmed cases, while there were a further seven confirmed measles cases and four probable cases during the first week of June.

In an interview this week with CBC's Information Radio, Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said the rising number of measles cases in Canada is a serious concern, and particularly dangerous for pregnant people and for newborns.

"The risk to a pregnant woman is much higher than to a non-pregnant mother, and the risk of death due to measles in a pregnant mother is, like, tenfold higher," Banerji told host Marcy Markusa.

"So pregnant women are hospitalized at higher rates."

According to Banerji, risks from measles to a pregnant woman can include pneumonia or hepatitis, which can travel to the brain and cause encephalitis — a dangerous inflammation of the brain that can, in some cases, lead to death. 

She added measles can also travel directly into the placenta and infect unborn babies.

"Basically, the virus can go anywhere in the body," Banerji said. 

That can result in miscarriages, stillbirths and premature deliveries, and can also lead to the baby contracting pneumonia, as well as hepatitis and possible brain infections, she said.

She says anyone who may get pregnant should get the vaccine, "just to prevent the risks in pregnancy."

She also says that after the measles vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, "we went from everyone getting it to almost nobody getting it."

"And so it happened in the past — we can do it again. We just need to get people vaccinated."

Information Radio - MB5:30Why Canada Could Lose Its Measles-Free Status

Dr. Anna Banerji, pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, speaks with host Marcy Markusa about why Canada's rising measles cases are a serious concern—especially for pregnant people and newborns. She talks about the risks of congenital measles, what happens when unvaccinated people are exposed, and what’s behind the drop in MMR vaccination rates.