WELLINGTON COUNTY – Public health is reporting 30 positive and probable measles cases in the region as of April 22, up from 19 just five days earlier.
As of April 17, the cases aren’t within schools or daycares, but Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is preparing for that possibility.
If measles is confirmed at a school or childcare centre, students and staff who are not immune or fully vaccinated (with up-to-date public health records showing two shots) can not attend for 21 days. (People who have had a known measles infection or were born before 1970 are considered immune.)
That’s according to an email sent out to families at public and private schools and daycare facilities in the region on April 15.
Most children receive their first measles shot shortly after their first birthday and a second shot between four and six years old.
But WDGPH community health vice president Rita Isley recommends parents of four and five year olds “get it now – don’t wait until they’re six.”
All children who have not had two doses of the vaccine would not be able to attend their daycare/school for three weeks if a positive case if discovered, Isley told the Advertiser.
That includes students with vaccine exemptions (medical, religious or conscientious) and students under four years old. The latter would be eligible for early vaccination, she noted.
Vaccines can be administered ahead of schedule in high-risk areas – prior to a first birthday for the first dose and a second dose at least four weeks after the first.
“Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph are not considered high-risk areas at this point in time,” Isley said.
However, if a positive case is confirmed at a school or daycare, a localized outbreak would be declared and that space would immediately become a high-risk area.
The exclusion from school/daycare lasts 21 days to ensure there are no more cases in the environment, based on the pathology of the disease, Isley said.
“You can be infectious up to four days prior to having any symptoms and four days after symptoms,” she said.
“We don’t know until someone is symptomatic whether or not they have the measles disease.”
Within the Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic school boards, about 94 per cent of students are up-to-date on all nine vaccines required by public health.
“That’s a really high vaccination rate,” Isley said, which “means we have a good level of herd immunity that helps protect kids that aren’t vaccinated” as well as vulnerable populations such as babies, immunocompromised people and under-vaccinated pregnant people.
(People cannot be vaccinated against measles while pregnant, and measles infections can lead to miscarriages, premature labour, and low birth weights).
But, should they be exposed, the 6% of students who are not fully vaccinated are at significant risk, Isley noted.
Very contagious
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “one person infected by measles can infect nine out of 10 of their unvaccinated close contacts.”
The virus can live in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves, states a WDGPH factsheet.
The WHO estimates 107,500 people died of measles in 2023 – mostly unvaccinated or under vaccinated children under five years old.
Without the vaccine, the organization estimates more than 60 million people would have died of measles between 2000 and 2023.
According to UNICEF, since the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine became available in 1971, “tens of millions of babies and children have been followed and studied to track both the immediate and long-term impacts of the vaccine.
“No deaths in healthy children have ever been shown to be related to receiving an MMR vaccine,” UNICEF officials state.
“However, if an unvaccinated child contracts measles, they have a 1 in 500 chance of dying if they are in an upper- or middle-income country.”
Side effects
While MMR vaccine side effects are possible, “they are usually mild and temporary,” UNICEF officials state, including swelling and soreness around the injection site or a fever seven to 11 days after vaccination.
A rash occurs for about 6% of children who receive the MMR-varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.
“Serious adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine are very rare,” UNICEF states.
This includes immune thrombocytopenic purpura (immune system reaction causing bruising) that “occurs in about one per 20,000 doses and is temporary in the vast majority of children.
“Serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) occurs in less than one per million doses,” UNICEF officials state.
About 8.5 in every 10,000 children may have a febrile seizure after receiving the MMR-V vaccine. About 23 in every 10,000 children who get measles will have a febrile seizure, according to UNICEF.
Vaccine is 99% effective
There is no evidence that any vaccine causes autism – a myth that has circulated since the 1990s and has never been supported by a credible scientific study, UNICEF officials state.
The measles vaccine is up to 99% effective in preventing measles, according to WDGPH.
WDGPH officials have been contacting parents and guardians of children between four and six years old to encourage them to get a second measles shot as soon as possible.
These students are not included in regulations under the Immunization of School Pupils Act, which only applies to children aged seven or older, and so would not be regularly suspended due to incomplete vaccine records.
During this school year, 1,104 students in the region were suspended due to vaccination status, Isley said.
But the “lions share” of those students were back to school within two days, as the suspension motivated them to update records or to get any missing vaccines, she said.
In the days after vaccine suspensions begin each year, she said the public health building is always crowded with families showing up for shots.
Only 69 of the over 1,000 suspended students had to stay away for the full 20-day suspension period, Isley said, as the rest updated their vaccination records.
Isley’s advice is clear: “If you aren’t immunized, please, go out and get immunized.
“It will help protect you should you be exposed in this environment,” she said.
“If you don’t know your immunization status, please go out and find your immunization status,” she added.
If you can’t find it, call WDGPH at 1-800-265-7293 and they will help.
If you or anyone in your household develops measles symptoms (fever, runny nose and cough, red and watery eyes, small white spots around the mouth, or a blotchy rash that starts around the ears and face and then spreads to the rest of the body), stay home, and call your health care provider to make an appointment and let them know you may have measles.
If you need to be around others, wear a well-fitting medical mask.
There is no treatment for measles, but rest, hydration and over-the-counter medications can help manage symptoms.
