Canada Loses Measles Elimination Status, Putting U.S. On Notice

The status change, driven by a persistent measles outbreak, brings a nearly 30-year public health victory to an end.

Canadian health officials announced Monday that the country has lost its measles elimination status due to an outbreak of the infectious disease persisting in the country for more than a year, and the United States may not be far behind.

Officials said they received notice about the designation from the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, a branch of the World Health Organization, after it confirmed that Canada had seen sustained transmission of the same measles strain for more than 12 months ― one of the main metrics used to determine a country’s elimination status.

The change brings a nearly 30-year public health victory to a screeching halt. Canada first achieved elimination status in 1998, meaning the country had gone a year or more without continuous domestic transmission of a measles strain. The U.S. followed in 2000.

In just the first 10 months of the year, Canada has seen around 5,000 cases of measles across 10 jurisdictions. That’s compared to around 1,700 cases from an outbreak across the U.S., which has around eight times Canada’s population.

There were 23 new cases in the last week of October alone, Canadian officials noted.