Doctors say control of measles outbreak in Canada challenged by disinformation and mistrust
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It’s been a year since the measles outbreak began in Canada, and the outbreak has subsided, but the virus shows no signs of going away.
This week, the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organizationsaid measles has made a “global comeback”, with Canada currently reporting the highest number of cases in the Americas region.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it considers October 27, 2024, the earliest part of an outbreak that has seen more than 5,000 confirmed and probable cases of the highly contagious airborne measles virus. Two deaths in this outbreak, one in Ontario and in one albertaIt occurs in babies who were born prematurely and had measles in the womb.
While Canada achieved Status of measles eradication in 1998Doctors are skeptical about the possibility that it will lose that status, and join the ranks of places where it is persistently present, currently at low levels.
“It’s important to reflect on who else is on that list,” said Don Bowdish, an immunologist and professor in the department of medicine at McMaster University. “Places in the world that are going through wars, major civil disruptions or that don’t have public health infrastructure.
“To have a country like Canada on that list is frankly shocking.”
To be sure, it is difficult to keep any disease at bay forever as international travel will continue to reintroduce the measles virus into Canada.
But doctors say there are other problems here at home – from distrust of medical authorities to widespread vaccine disinformation in vulnerable communities – could set the stage for The wrath of the future. Here they want to see change.
Tackling vaccine misinformation
Health officials say the pan-Canadian outbreak began when an international traveler attended a wedding in New Brunswick last October, leading to cases in Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, largely in unvaccinated communities.
In Canada and around the world, vaccine misinformation Vaccination efforts are at risk.
Dr. Lenora Saxinger, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta, said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines have been studied “back, forth and side by side” for safety.
Measles can start like a cold – with symptoms such as high fever and cough – but in rare cases, it becomes fatal. For one child, complications emerged nearly a decade later, taking away his ability to speak, walk, and ultimately his life.
But persistent, strongly organized disinformation campaigns about the measles vaccine have scared off some people, which Saxinger called a shame. He said there would have to be concerted efforts to counter those campaigns, such as hiring people to make debunking videos instead of health professionals volunteering informally.
“There also needs to be a little critical look at algorithms and how social media is shaping disinformation and whether there is some spread of disinformation that needs to be looked at through (a) legislative lens, which has been done in Europe,
Dr. Issac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert at Toronto’s University Health Network, said disinformation weakens the public health message. “We see disinformation increasing online and having real world consequences.”
trust issues
In Canada, measles outbreaks in both Ontario and Alberta are concentrated in unique, close-knit religiously and culturally distinct communities, Saxinger said.
“There needs to be a lot of confidence-building among certain groups of the population,” Saxinger said. “This is something that will honestly have to be continually invested in.”
While measles is a disease that can be well controlled and even potentially eliminated with existing tools, based on vaccination rates and blood testing for antibodies, Saxinger estimated that half a million people in Alberta alone are not immune to measles.
Mennonite communities scattered Southwestern Ontario The province was greatly affected by the measles outbreak.
Catalina Friesen, a personal support worker at the Central Community Health Center in Alymer, Ontario, near London, speaks Low German and works with a nurse practitioner in a mobile clinic to translate during medical visits.
“If they don’t trust us they won’t come see us,” Friesen said. Being part of the community, Friesen said she is able to understand what families are going through and help them understand the importance of vaccination and preventing the spread of measles by staying home when sick.
“I don’t think they’re particularly concerned about the measles vaccine. I think they’re just concerned about being told what to do when they don’t want to do it.”
Friesen said the distrust among Mennonites stems from abuses over the past 100 years, including proposals of autonomy by the authorities not followed Through.
Call for vaccine registry
Knowing whether someone has been vaccinated against measles will be helpful to doctors and nurses in Ontario hospitals, who check for symptoms such as fever and rash at all times, said Dr. Jeffrey Pernicka, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.
“It’s not like the urgent care doctor or the (emergency department) or any other family doctor will know whether a person has been vaccinated or not, which greatly hinders their ability to provide care.”
Vaccination records in Ontario are currently scattered between different medical offices that are not always shared with local public health units, or written on slips of paper that can be lost.
When measles infections occur, easily accessible and linked records will also help health care providers in hospitals, who currently have to spend time finding information about who has been vaccinated, Pernicka said.
“It makes a lot of sense to have provincial vaccine registries that are compatible with each other, so we have a national view of where some of these pockets might be,” Bogoch said, adding that a national vaccine registry for routine childhood vaccinations was a “no-brainer.” Ontario’s Chief Public Health Officer has Also called for a national registry To guide public health responses.
Immunologist Bowdish said Canadians who move between provinces and territories would only benefit from less reliance on paper vaccination records.
“Canadians are a very dynamic group and many people, including myself, have gotten vaccinated in different provinces,” Bowdish said. “It’s very hard to track them down in provincial registries. Much easier at the national level, right?”
Looking to the future, Bogoch said, a large-scale global resurgence of measles makes it “inevitable” that measles will come to Canada again. High vaccination rates are needed to avoid starting long chains of transmission.
“Easy to say, but it certainly takes time, effort, energy, resources to accomplish.”
