Measles cases show signs of exponential growth in western Canada, say health experts
Global News
As the measles epidemic in Canada shows signs of exponential growth, public health experts in Alberta and Saskatchewan are stepping up their efforts to get people vaccinated.
The number of confirmed cases of measles in Alberta is soaring, from 193 confirmed cases on May 1 to 313 cases on May 8 — a period of just one week.
Nearly two-thirds of cases are in the southern part of the province, which includes Lethbridge, Taber and Medicine Hat.
And the real number of cases in Alberta is probably much higher, according to the province’s former chief medical health officer, Dr. James Talbot, during a virtual press conference on Thursday, organized by the Alberta Medical Association.
“Because it takes time for measles to infect someone, cause symptoms, develop the rash, and be reported after a lab test confirms it, numbers reported in Alberta are actually lagging behind the number of infections,” added Talbot.
An illness that was once considered eradicated in Canada is now showing signs of exponential growth, with Alberta quickly approaching the rate of spread in Ontario where another 197 cases over the last week brings the number of confirmed cases to 1,440.
101 patients in Ontario have been hospitalized, including 75 children and eight of those are intensive care.
“What we have seen at least for the last three weeks in the Alberta is a near doubling every week of the new cases — so we are still very much in an expansion phase and no sign of that slowing down at least the next several weeks,” said Dr. Craig Jenne, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Calgary.
The number of measles cases in Saskatchewan is also showing signs of explosive growth with that province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, confirming a total of 27 confirmed infections as of Thursday — a jump of 15 cases in just the past week.
To date, there have been six confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease in B.C. after it was first detected in B.C.'s Kootenay region in 2024.
In the week ending Dec. 20, one in four (25.6 per cent) of every influenza test conducted in the U.S. came back positive, the U.S. CDC said.
As of Dec. 29, Health Canada had received nine submissions seeking approval to make semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
The B.C. Ministry of Transportation says Highway 16 linking Prince Rupert to communities in the east including Terrace has been shut in both directions due to flooding.
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