A measles outbreak has been declared by two neighbouring Ontario public health units as there are now 19 confirmed cases of the virus in the area.
The top doctor with Grand Erie Public Health says there have been 16 cases confirmed in his area, which includes Brantford and Brant County as well as the Haldimand-Norfolk region.
“We’re seeing a lot of activity down here, particularly in the Haldimand-Norfolk area,” Dr. Malcolm Lock, the health unit’s acting medical officer of health, said.
“At this point, we’ve got 16 cases in total: 15 that are associated with Haldimand-Norfolk, one associated with Brant.”
He said 13 of those cases are among children and the remaining cases are adults.
“When this started, we were looking at this being just a cluster of cases that were occurring predominantly in a non-immunized group,” Lock said. “But we’ve now moved to calling it an outbreak because of the numbers that are very rapidly increasing.
“And the numbers that we think are going to continue to increase.”
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A measles outbreak has also been declared by the neighbouring Southwestern Public Health, which includes some of Tillsonburg as well as Woodstock and St. Thomas.
Dr. Ninh Tran, the medical officer of health at Southwestern Public Health, says there have been three cases reported so far this year.
Despite the low number of cases compared with their neighbours, the doctor says staff in his area have been tied up in dealing with potential contact cases.
“Our infectious disease team is at near capacity in their work in terms of following up with those individuals who may have been exposed to measles in our local health-care settings,” Tran said.
“We’ve had a significant number of exposures in contact with people from our region who are in close contact with confirmed cases that are outside of our region.”
He is asking anyone who may have been exposed to the virus to call ahead to hospitals or medical clinics if they believe they have contracted the virus.
“This is a critical step that allows the health-care providers and their institutions to prepare for the arrival and reduce the chances that others will be exposed to the illness,” Tran said.
“Measles is airborne. It is highly, highly contagious and can linger in the air for up to two hours.”
On Wednesday, Lock told reporters some of the symptoms people need to look out for if they are feeling under the weather are “a red rash, fever, cough, runny nose, upper respiratory-type symptoms, along with red eyes, fatigue and a high temperature.”
Lock did not say how many people are vaccinated against measles in the Haldimand-Norfolk area but he is encouraging people to check their vaccination records if they are born after 1970.
“It’s been calculated that even with one dose, that may give up to 85 per cent immunity and with two doses, we consider that it’s 100 per cent immunity,” he said.
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