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Ontario reports first measles death in Ontario in over a decade
June 3, 2024 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
Two months after the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit issued a warning about the importance of measles vaccinations and offered immunization clinics, the province has reported the first measles death in Ontario in over a decade.
The deceased is a child under the age of five.
The child was not vaccinated against measles – a highly infectious respiratory virus.
After contracting the virus, the child required hospitalization but died from the disease.
The report from Public Health Ontario did not specify when the child died, where they lived, or their age.
Previous to this death, there had not been a single measles-related death in Ontario for over ten years.
In February, the World Health Organization said that more than half the world’s countries will be at high or very high risk of measles outbreaks by the end of the year unless preventative measures are taken immediately.
The province has reported 22 cases of measles in the province this year. Of those cases, 15 were attributed to travel with the affected individual picking up the virus abroad.
Canada managed to eradicate the disease in 1998 due to high immunization coverage.
As a result, cases of measles in Ontario are predominantly associated with travel.
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