P.E.I. health officials worry about risk of measles spreading here  

Prince Edward Island has not had a case of measles in more than a decade, but with an eruption of cases in Europe, health officials here are bracing for the possible return of the disease.

There were more than 42,000 measles cases in Europe last year, the World Health Organization announced last week. That's a 40-fold increase from 2022, when fewer than 1,000 cases were reported. 

P.E.I.'s chief public health officer, Dr. Heather Morrison, said it's possible that Islanders who aren't immune to the disease could bring cases back after travelling.

"We know historically, when there are pockets of population where the vaccine rates or immunization rates decrease, it leads to outbreaks and higher levels of disease," she added. "We've seen that through the years in different parts of the world and it reminds us each time it happens how important and how effective this kind of vaccination program can be."

Over the last five years, an average of 93 per cent of school-aged children in Prince Edward Island have been fully immunized with a measles-containing vaccine, just shy of the ideal of 95 per cent, said Morrison.

"I think we worry like everywhere else if we see those rates slipping down lower," she said.

National vaccination rates have certainly been slipping.

Canada all but eliminated measles in 1998 through widespread vaccination programs. Yet federal data from 2021 shows that only 79 per cent of children across the country had two doses of the vaccine, down from 87 per cent in 2017. 

Morrison said P.E.I. was able to maintain its vaccination program throughout the pandemic, which should keep the Island's overall resistance to measles stronger. In other parts of the country, programs were scaled back or cancelled altogether because public health resources were needed to administer COVID-19 vaccinations.

"That's one of the things that we were able to continue to do here in P.E.I. … still maintain our childhood immunization program despite COVID going on," said Morrison. "That rate of decline they may have seen in some other places, we haven't seen to quite the same extent here.'

Measles is highly contagious, which that means once the infection is in the province, it can spread rapidly. Research suggests that one person with measles can spread it to an average of 12 to 18 others.

And the illness can cause serious health issues for some people.

In Europe, the World Health Organization said there were more than 20,000 hospitalizations and at least five deaths in December alone. 

Morrison said two doses of the measles vaccine will be nearly 98 per cent effective in keeping someone from contracting the disease.