Alberta government beefs up measles defence as cases rival 1980s levels

The Alberta government says it is taking new steps to rein in the province’s measles outbreaks as case counts surge to the highest levels since 1987.

The province reported an additional 55 cases on Monday, pushing the total since the outbreaks began in March to 265.

The last time the province saw more measles cases was in 1987, when 690 were confirmed.

And measles is taking a serious toll in Alberta.

The province has confirmed that, as of the weekend, three patients under the age of 18 were in intensive care due to the virus.

“Measles is preventable and the time to act is now,” said Dr. Sunil Sookram, Alberta’s interim chief medical officer of health.

Sookram made the comments alongside Health Minister Adriana LaGrange on Monday morning, in the first government press conference on measles since the outbreaks began.

He said he wants to ensure Albertans are armed with science-based information as he underscored the measles vaccine is safe and effective.

“We know this to be true because according to recent studies it has saved the lives of over 154 million people in the last half century. The vast majority of lives saved — 101 million — were infants or  children.”

Alberta’s south and central zones continue to be the hardest hit.

“These are areas where vaccination coverage has fallen — sometimes due to concern about safety, sometimes due to cultural beliefs and sometimes due to misinformation,” said Sookram.

Vaccination rates in pockets of those regions are far below the 95 per cent threshold experts say is needed for population-level protection.

Forty-eight new cases were confirmed in the south zone over the weekend, bringing the total there to 154. The central zone reported three new cases for a total of 75 since the outbreaks began. 

Three new cases were reported in the Calgary zone and one in the Edmonton zone.

“It is the unimmunized and under-immunized that are most affected,” said LaGrange.

There have been no deaths reported due to measles in Alberta this year.

Ad campaign to launch, immunization expanded

The Alberta government is expanding access to immunization with more appointments being added at clinics in the south and central zones.

“Getting immunized against measles is the single most important thing you can do to protect your loved ones and yourself and your community, especially those young infants who have just come into the world and aren’t able to be immunized, as well as pregnant women and those with certain immuno-compromising conditions,” said LaGrange.

In the south zone, evening and weekend immunization appointments are being opened up, and in the central zone, clinics are offering walk-in vaccination and there are some evening as well as Saturday appointments.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is also prepared to extend hours and open extra clinic space around the province based on demand, according to the government.

The province has launched a measles hotline, which will fast-track questions about immunization status and vaccine appointments as well as provide advice to people with measles symptoms.

That hotline, set up though Health Link, can be reached at 1-844-944-3434.

Next week, the government will also launch an ad campaign through radio, print, digital and social media, including translations into 14 languages.

The online ads will be translated into French, Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Tagalog, according to the province. The radio campaign will include  Arabic, French, Hindi, Korean, Farsi, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Public health officials are also reaching out to physicians, public health nurses and faith leaders in impacted communities, according to LaGrange.

“It really is how do we develop trusting relationships with those communities that are under-immunized or unimmunized? How do we get the information out? It is reaching them in their own languages, developing those trusting relationships,” she said.

In the central zone, health officials are working with affected schools as well, communicating with principals and superintendents, according to the central zone’s medical officer of health, Dr. Ifeoma Achebe.

In addition, babies living or travelling to the south, central and north zones are eligible for an early (and extra) dose of the measles vaccine in addition to the routine immunization schedule, which recommends doses at 12 and 18 months of age.

Plans are also in the works for standalone measles assessment and treatment centres, according to Sookram.

“AHS and the ministry have been working together to fine tune that plan. When the threshold has been met to implement the plan — like we’ve done for influenza, like we did for COVID — and there’s a need for that service in particular, I think we’ll be prepared to launch that,” he said. 

Timing concerns

“It really should have happened about a month ago,” said Dr. Sam Wong, president of the section of pediatrics with the Alberta Medical Association.

He’s has been calling for stronger messaging from the province and increased vaccination access since measles cases first started being reported.

“Now you have outbreaks in these smaller areas of central zone and south zone. Maybe that could have been prevented. Maybe we didn’t need to get [265] cases before we have a press conference.”

Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health for Alberta, welcomed stronger messaging about the dangers of measles and the importance of vaccination.

But he too believes it should have happened earlier and he remains concerned about the potential impacts.

For every one thousand measles cases, he warned, you can expect to see between one and three deaths.

“My concern is that if we don’t get this right that we’re going to see deaths,” he said

“And if we do then everybody in the system — up to and including the minister of health who’s responsible for that system — is going to have to ask themselves, ‘Did we do everything we could have done to prevent this entirely preventable outcome?'”

Despite the escalating situation, health officials have not yet declared a province-wide measles outbreak.

LaGrange said cases would have to be continuing to climb in all zones, which she said is not happening in the Calgary or Edmonton zones.

“There’s no reason to expect that the other three zones — Edmonton, Calgary and the north — won’t have the exact same path,” said Talbot, noting it’s impossible to prevent people from travelling between regions and potentially spreading the virus.

“Call it ‘province-wide.’ Make it clear that so far we’re not seeing the same increase in the other three zones but we’re going to be prudent and start taking precautions to make sure that those increases don’t happen.”

Meanwhile, when asked how confident he is the outbreaks can be reined in, given the situation in Ontario where case counts have topped 1,200, Sookram said it will take some time.

“We are now taking active steps through immunization programs to try and stem that growth. It’ll take a couple of weeks to months to see the fruits of that effort. It’s not a quick thing,” he said.

Measles is highly contagious and can lead to serious complications including pneumonia, brain swelling and even death.

According to the provincial government’s website, between one and three out of every 1,000 people with measles will die.

Measles symptoms include:

• High fever.
• Cough.
• Runny nose.
• Red eyes.
• Blotchy, red rash that appears three to seven days after the fever starts.

Information about measles, including case counts, can be found on the Alberta government’s measles web page, which includes a link to a list of exposure location alerts