Measles No Longer Eliminated in Canada

Measles, a disease that can lead to serious health issues such as blindness, deafness and even death is easily prevented with childhood vaccinations. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation and outright lies regarding the necessity for them caused a dramatic drop in parents vaccinating their children. As a result, a serious outbreak of measles occurred in 2024, with more than 5,000 cases reported across Canada. Transmission of the virus for 12 consecutive months caused Canada's eliminated status of measles to be striped away.Dr. Natalie Bocking is Deputy Medical Officer of Health with Lakelands Public Health. Recently, she spoke with CanoeFM about what this means and her concerns for other diseases returning. She says as a physician, she's disappointed that Canada has lost its elimination status for measles because of all the efforts made to achieve it.