Soaring number of Alberta measles cases worries health officials in both Canada, U.S.

There growing outbreak of measles in Alberta now has health officials on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border concerned.

Fourteen new confirmed cases of measles over the past 24 hours means the number of cases in Alberta has now climbed to a total of 409.

A large majority of the cases — 269 — are in Alberta’s south health zone, which includes the communities of Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Taber.

More than three-quarters of the people diagnosed with the virus are children and three people are in hospital, in intensive care.

“I think it’s actually just crazy — it’s appalling,” said Dr Lenore Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta.

“For context, when many current doctors were in training, in the early 2000s, shortly after measles was eliminated as something that circulates in Canada, we would see less than 10 cases a year for many years — and now we’re getting essentially close to 10 or more cases a day.”

Amongst all the provinces, Alberta is second only to Ontario where there are now 1,622 confirmed cases of measles.

The outbreak of measles in Canada is now also being blamed for a public health alert in the United States in the Seattle area of Washington state.

Residents there are being notified of a recent visitor from Canada who had a confirmed case of measles and was contagious when they visited more than a dozen different locations.