Measles: 1)Canada has lost its measles elimination status after more than 25 years; 2)How Canada can regain its measles elimination status

1)Canada has lost its measles elimination status after more than 25 years

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Hannah Alberga and Nicole Ireland, November 10, 2025

Canada has officially lost the measles elimination status it had held since 1998, causing the entire region of the Americas to also lose the designation.

The status is granted and revoked by the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization’s office for countries in North and South America. It said Monday Canada could no longer consider itself measles-free after confirming ongoing transmission of the same strain of measles for more than one year 

That means all of the Americas has lost the status as well, PAHO director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa said at a news conference.

“If only one country in our region loses the status, the region loses the status together with the country. But all the other 34 countries, they are still measles-free,” Barbosa said, distinguishing the regional status from that of individual countries. 

But the region only regained measles-free status last year after Venezuela and Brazil contained their outbreaks. Those countries lost elimination in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Venezuela recovered through a strong and continuous surveillance program that detected and contained cases before they sprawled, Dr. Daniel Salas, PAHO’s executive manager, Special Program for Comprehensive Immunization, said at the news conference. 

Salas also said Brazil identified exactly where there were unvaccinated children and targeted those pockets.

Similarly, Salas said Canada will need to focus onthe tight-knit communities of unvaccinated people where measles has primarily spread. 

This year, several other neighbouring nations have been hit with outbreaks. 

PAHO said almost 12,600 measles cases have been reported across 10 countries in the region with Canada, Mexico and the United States accounting for approximately 95 per cent of them. 

That represents a 30-fold increase compared to 2024. 

Active outbreaks have also been ongoing in Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay, but Salas said he is hopeful the spread will be interrupted before those countries reach the 12-month mark of ongoing transmission.

Canada’s outbreak began in New Brunswick in October 2024 and spread to more than 5,000 people in Canada, including two infants in Ontario and Alberta who were infected with measles in the womb and died after they were born.

Ontario, which was deemed the country’s hot spot for months, declared an end to its outbreak in October after more than 2,000 cases.

Alberta’s outbreak of the same strain continues, with almost 2,000 people getting sick with the highly contagious disease so far. British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories have also had cases.

To get its elimination status back, Canada will need to stamp out the transmission of the current strain for at least 12 months, the Public Health Agency of Canada said Monday.

“While transmission has slowed recently, the outbreak has persisted for over 12 months, primarily within under-vaccinated communities,” PHAC said. 

The federal agency said it’s working with PAHO and federal, provincial and territorial partners to boost vaccination coverage, strengthen data sharing, and improve surveillance and guidance. 

Public health and infectious disease experts attribute the return of measles to declining vaccination rates, stemming from misinformation-fuelled vaccine hesitancy and distrust of authority, as well as the disruption of routine immunizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Brian Ward, professor of infectious diseases microbiology at the McGill University Health Centre, said losing measles elimination status is “embarrassing.”

“We’re a wealthy country that, at least theoretically, believes in science-driven health care, evidence-driven care. I think we take considerable pride in the fact that we have a really strong health-care system,” Ward said.

Despite having a vaccine that “works and is remarkably safe, we haven’t figured out how to actually convince people that this is the right thing to do.”

Ward said reforming the primary-care system in Canada so that doctors and nurse practitioners have more time to spend with worried parents is an important step in re-establishing vaccine confidence.

“The parents of these small children, they’re not bad people. They’re trying to do the best they can for their children,” he said.

“To actually convince someone who is scared by what they hear (about vaccines) in a five or 10-minute interview, when you’ve actually got to deal with all of the other things, that’s not easy. I would say that’s impossible.”

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases in the world, requires 95 per cent vaccination coverage to obtain herd immunity.

Regional measles vaccination coverage of the second dose was well below that target in 2024, at an average of 79 per cent, according to PAHO. 

“The measles vaccine is the best way to protect Canadians and their family,” said Guillaume Bertrand, spokesperson for federal Minister of Health Marjorie Michel, in an emailed response on Monday.

“Minister Michel is following the situation closely, and working with PHAC, as well as her provincial and territorial counterparts, so Canada can re-establish its measles elimination status.”

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

2)How Canada can regain its measles elimination status

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Ireland and Hannah Alberga, November 11, 2025

Infectious disease experts say Canada’s loss of measles elimination status shows how badly investment is needed in public health, rebuilding vaccine confidence and solving the primary care crisis.

On Monday, the Pan American Health Organization revoked the measles-free status Canada has had since 1998 because an outbreak of the virus across several provinces has lasted for more than a year.

McMaster University immunologist Dawn Bowdish says cuts to public health funding, the lack of a national vaccine registry and a shortage of family doctors — all while misinformation about vaccines is circulating widely — have contributed to the rise of measles.

She says public health workers don’t have the resources they need to do enough vaccination outreach to communities and bump up surveillance to quickly identify cases and stop transmission.

Bowdish says not having a national vaccine registry means many people can’t easily find out if they’re up-to-date on their immunizations if they were vaccinated in another province or country.

She says if families don’t have a primary care doctor or nurse practitioner, their kids are at risk of missing vaccinations since pharmacies don’t do measles, mumps and rubella immunizations for very young children.

“Inevitably, if you don’t have good consistent care, these are the kind of things that get dropped,” Bowdish said.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases in the world, requires 95 per cent vaccination coverage to obtain herd immunity.

Bowdish said tougher enforcement of school vaccination policies, essentially restricting exemptions to valid medical reasons, is critical to stopping the spread.

“One of the things that my colleagues and I have been saying for a long time is many of the provinces, including Alberta and Ontario — the epicentre of these outbreaks — we’re way too liberal with our exemption rules. And that has contributed to falling vaccine rates.”

To get its elimination status back, Canada will not only need to stamp out the transmission of the current strain for at least 12 months — it will also need to show that it has beefed up its surveillance systems and ability to quickly stop outbreaks if measles cases arise, the Pan American Health Organization said on Monday.

Bowdish said the return of measles in Canada “shows how many systems will have to be fixed for us to get this under control.”

“We’ve been trying really, really hard for over a year and I don’t disparage any of my colleagues in public health because I know they’ve been losing sleep trying to do the best they can with the resources they have,” she said.

“There’s no two ways about this. This will take money — a lot of money — and a lot of investment. And it will take a lot of political will.”

Dr. Daniel Salas, executive manager of PAHO’s Special Program for Comprehensive Immunization, said Canada will need to finish implementing its national electronic vaccine record system, which at the moment only accounts for five provinces and one territory.

Dr. Monika Naus, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, said it’s critical to sort out what’s happening in communities with low vaccination rates, including determining whether children were immunized but their records are missing or if they are actually unvaccinated.

“That really is something that the public health community should be able to get a handle on,” she said.

PAHO also recommended presenting a corrective plan to continue breaking down barriers to understand the perspectives of the close-knit unvaccinated communities where measles has spread.

Naus, who has previously served as chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and as medical director of vaccine preventable diseases at the BC Centre for Disease Control, said those targeted efforts are critical and make a difference.

“It’s probably false to consider that people who are resistant to vaccination will never be vaccinated under any circumstances,” she said.

“Even in communities with low uptake rates, there are probably (public health) improvements that can be made.”

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.