B.C.’s measles outbreak gained steam in late May, but so far, the majority of cases are still confined to the Northern Health region.
Deputy provincial health officer Dr. Martin Lavoie gave an update on Thursday (July 10). So far this year, 102 measles cases have been reported in the province, the majority in the Northern Health region.
Seventy-three cases have been reported to Northern Health, 10 in Fraser Health, eight in Interior Health, eight in Vancouver Coastal and three in Island Health.
According to the province, there is just one active case, but 10 people were still hospitalized due to the disease as of July 8.
The outbreak has not yet reached the levels of the 2014 Fraser Valley measles outbreak. A total of 344 people were infected that year, almost universally in the Fraser Health region.
Lavoie said B.C. had a few cases earlier in the year, connected to travel abroad, but it was toward the end of May when the virus found a "pocket of people" that were not immunized and began to spread.
Health Minister Josie Osborne joined Lavioe to provide the provincial measles update.
Osborne encouraged people to get vaccinated, saying measles is an extremely contagious virus that can lead to serious disease and cause complications, including pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and even death.
Because the disease is so contagious, herd immunity can only be achieved once more than 95 per cent of people are fully vaccinated. This coverage also needs to be evenly distributed.
Vaccination skepticism has risen in recent years, leading to declining immunization rates.
According to Health Ministry statistics, 67.8 per cent of seven-year-old children have received two doses of the vaccine, and 85.3 per cent have one. This is lowest in the Northern Health region, where 61.1 per cent are fully vaccinated and 84 per cent have one dose.
Most of the cases so far are young people under the age of 18 and are in areas with the lowest vaccine uptake.
"It's running its course through that group of people, and so that's what we're seeing," Lavoie said.
The minister urged British Columbians to check their vaccination status to ensure they have had two doses.
