Measles cases have doctors worried

50 families told they may have been exposed to infected boy at CHEO

Ottawa health officials urging parents to get children vaccinated,

Public Health Ottawa is urging parents and doctors to ensure children are vaccinated against measles after a case of the virus was seen at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario last week.

The child, who is from Gatineau, is the sole case in Ottawa but Dr. Carolyn Pim, the city’s associate medical officer of health, said 50 families have been notified that they may have been exposed to the measles virus as they “shared the same air space” as the infected child.

Across Canada in the last month, measles has been on the rise. There were five cases in Halton, Ont., eight in British Columbia and two on Prince Edward Island. In 2011, a Quebec measles outbreak saw more than 700 cases, the vast majority affecting children who haven’t been immunized.

“One of the reasons that we’re aggressive in followup of these cases is that we want to try to prevent any outbreak,” said Pim on Sunday. “Measles is extremely infectious. It is spread through the air and can remain in the air for a couple of hours after a person has been there,” she said.

Ontario law requires public school students to be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. However, a growing number of Ontario parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children, largely due to health concerns associated with vaccinations.

A widely publicized 1998 study out of the United Kingdom showed a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and the development of autism. However, that study has been widely proven false and fraudulent and its author, Andrew Wakefield, has had his medical licence revoked. Subsequent studies found no such link.

Still, the echoes of that study remain. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) just completed a “catch-up” program, immunizing nearly a million 10- to 16-yearolds whose parents had been scared off after Wakefield’s study. The NHS undertook to vaccinate as many children as possible after a measles outbreak in Wales which has seen 1,200 people infected so far this year.

In India, over 22,000 children have been infected this year alone and 188 have died.

Pim said most Canadian cases of the measles are “imported” from outside the country. Either an unvaccinated Canadian contracts the disease while travelling in a country where measles is prevalent and vaccinations are scarce, or a tourist infected with the virus arrives on Canadian soil.

The Gatineau child had recently travelled abroad.

“Because this is a Gatineau case, the only exposures in the Ottawa area were at CHEO,” she said.

Pim said Ottawa Public Health is “working very closely” with Gatineau Public Health to find everyone the child may have been in contact with to confirm their immunizations are up to date and to advise them to watch out for measles symptoms, which can take up to 21 days to show up. Anyone with symptoms — such as high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, rash and spots in the mouth — should seek medical attention, she said, making sure to tell the medical receptionist immediately so as not to spread any infection to other patients in the waiting room.

Dr. Hugues Loemba, a University of Ottawa professor specializing in viral diseases who also works at the university’s health services clinic, said “the problem is you have parents who think their child won’t be the unlucky one to get measles. But, the fact is, once you have measles, there is no treatment.”

“It’s a viral disease. Antibiotics don’t work.”

Pim said Public Health statistics show fewer than two per cent of Ontario parents refuse to immunize their children.

“Certainly we’re concerned if any child is unprotected and it’s something we’re watching very carefully,” she said. “But, at this point, the vast majority of people are very supportive of immunization and do immunize their children.”

“Basically, if you have immunization rates that are over 95 per cent in the population, then the virus doesn’t find enough people to sustain itself,” she said.

In Ontario, the MMR vaccine is recommended at 12 months of age and a preschool booster is usually done between the ages of four and six.

The first dose is 85 to 90 per cent effective and the second is virtually 100 per cent effective in preventing the disease, which can cause blindness, hearing loss, epilepsy, cerebral palsy or, in some cases, death. Once a person has both vaccine doses, immunity lasts into adulthood.

Pim said Public Health Ontario will continue to monitor the situation all month.

“It’s just one isolated case but, because the incubation period is about two weeks, it’ll probably be the end of July before we know whether there are any other cases. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Public Health Ottawa posts updated information and breaking health news on its Twitter account @OttawaHealth.