Everything you need to know about protecting yourself against measles

Vancouver resident Stefania Seccia has a stern message for parents: Get your children vaccinated against measles. 

Seccia went through a major health scare in 2019 when a B.C. Children's Hospital nurse called to tell her that her nearly one-year-old son Max might have been exposed to measles after a recent hospital visit. 

"The nurse was like, 'Because of when you went, we can't guarantee that your son was not exposed to measles while you were in the waiting room,'" Seccia said. 

Days after receiving the call from the hospital, Seccia learned that the father of the children at the centre of the outbreak at B.C. Children's Hospital didn't vaccinate his children before a trip to Southeast Asia because of disproven evidence linking the measles vaccine to autism.

Seccia quickly decided to share her experiences with news media.

"We see this news story about this person who made a really reckless choice that now has my son potentially in an extremely dangerous situation … so that's why we went to the news," Seccia said.

Max — who was a high-risk patient because he was born prematurely — never developed measles, and Seccia was able to quickly schedule an appointment for a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. 

As measles cases rise around the world — and appear in countries like Canada with ready access to life-saving vaccines — Seccia is one of a chorus of voices urging parents to vaccinate their children and adults to get their shots, too. 

Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by exposure to measles virus, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Zain Chagla. The disease is spread through direct contact with infectious droplets, or through airborne spread by an infected person.

"This is an infection, realistically, that is one of the most infectious, in terms of spread pathogens, known to man," Chagla, who serves as co-medical director of infection control at St. Joseph's Health Care in Hamilton, told The Dose host Dr. Brian Goldman.

Not only can the virus remain in an environment for up to two hours after an infected individual has left the scene, but Chalga says one infected patient can also transmit the disease to up to 20 other people. 

Measles has an incubation period of roughly 10 days, and patients who contract measles initially show symptoms similar to a common respiratory infection, such as the cold or flu. 

They'll develop a cough and a runny nose, as well as redness in their eyes. After a few days, however, a "characteristic rash" begins to emerge around the face, slowly working its way down a patient's neck before it spreads further, said Chagla.

"Red spots that start on the face start becoming much more apparent on the face, to the point where they almost form a single layer of redness going down into the neck and then down into the rest of the body."