Hamilton child under 5 dies of measles: public health agency

A Hamilton child under five years old has died of measles, says the city's public health agency.

"This is a profoundly trag‐ ic situation where a young child has left us too soon with their whole life ahead of them," said Dr. Brendan Lew, Hamilton's associate medical officer of health, in a state‐ ment Friday.

"To respect and protect the privacy of the child and their loved ones, we will not be speaking to further details of this individual case."

It's the first such death in Ontario since 1989, when tracking began, according to Public Health Ontario (PHO).

In an update published

Thursday, PHO said the child was not vaccinated against the highly infectious respira‐ tory virus. It did not indicate when the child died or their specific age.

"A measles-related death is a rare and tragic event. Our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time," a spokesperson for PHO said in an email statement.

Cases on the rise Hamilton public health has confirmed six cases of the measles so far this year, said Lew. None of the individ‐ uals were vaccinated.

Earlier this month, public health warned people about the possibility of measles ex‐ posure at a grocery store, apartment building and Mc‐ Master Children's Hospital af‐ ter four members of the same household contracted the virus.

Hamilton Health Sciences, which runs the children's hospital, said in a statement it could not confirm whether or not the child who died was in their care citing privacy reasons.

Measles has also been on the rise in both Ontario and elsewhere in Canada as cases increase globally, particularly in Europe, which has seen tens of thousands of infec‐ tions over the last year.

There have been 22 cases in the province so far this year, PHO says - a level of in‐ fections already matching a recent high set in 2014, when there was the same number over the entire calendar year.

All of the cases were in people born after 1970, in‐ cluding 13 children. In 12 of those instances, the children were unimmunized, while the vaccination status of one was unknown.

Five infections, all in un‐ vaccinated children under five years old, required hos‐ pitalization, the report says.

In an email statement, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Health offered condolences to the family of the deceased child.

"Our heart goes out to the family that has tragically lost their child. Our thoughts are with them as they navigate this challenging time," the spokesperson said. "We rem‐ ind all Ontarians to stay up to date with their vaccinations to ensure themselves, and their loved ones are pro‐ tected against infectious dis‐ eases."

Speaking in Winnipeg on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the child's

death "a tragedy that nobody wants to see."

"I can't imagine what that family is going through right now, but I do know as a parent that all of us want the absolute best for our kids," he said.

"I recommend that every‐ one listens to their doctors, their health professionals on how to keep their kids safe."

Travel a factor in most cases, agency says

Most of the total measles cases this year, 15 of 22, were linked to travel, PHO says.

"In Ontario, measles has been rare, owing to the suc‐ cessful elimination of measles in Canada and high immunization coverage. As a result, measles cases are pre‐ dominantly associated with travel," the report says.

"Due to an increase in measles activity globally, On‐ tario has begun to see more cases of measles."

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infec‐ tious diseases consultant at Toronto General Hospital, says Canadians planning to travel should ensure they are protected against the virus given the rise in infections abroad.

"The vaccine is extremely effective. It's safe, it's widely available, and it's free. Is it perfect? Of course not. Noth‐ ing's perfect, but it's really, really, really good," he told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Friday.

WATCH | Bogoch on measles risks amid a global rise in cases:

Bogoch said interruptions to routine childhood vaccina‐ tion schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic means that some young children may have missed a dose.

For Canadian children, the typical schedule is now two doses, both administered be‐ fore they enter school. The first dose of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine should be giv‐ en when a child is 12 to 15 months of age and the sec‐ ond at 18 months, or any time after that, but no later than around school entry, notes the Canadian immu‐ nization guide.

For infants set to travel in‐ ternationally with their care‐ givers, especially to destina‐ tions with high rates of measles infection, the first shot can be moved up to six months in some cases, Bo‐ goch said.