30 confirmed measles cases in Quebec  

Quebec has reached 30 cases of measles, according to the most recent public health figures. 

The Laurentians region remains the most affected with 27 cases of measles, the others are in Montreal, Laval and the Montérégie. 

“This is a virus that for all intensive purposes medical  history has really intended to try and eradicate through vaccines and now we’re seeing its resurgence,” said Dr. Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist. “The start of 2025 was two months ago, right so in that two months we have about 100 cases nationwide we have about 30 cases in Quebec, just to put in perspective at the end of 2024 nationwide we had 145 cases. So we are really in a bad pace.”

Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself against this highly contagious disease, says public health. Quebec’s vaccination schedule requires children to receive the vaccine at 12 and 18 months, but it can be administered free of charge at any age. 

“We have to be cautious because as a population, we can’t expect this to go away,” said Dr. Vinh. “Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases.”

The Ministry of Health reported last week that vaccination coverage for primary and secondary school students for the current school year (2024-2025) is around 90 per cent. However, it noted vaccination delays among toddlers and some adult populations. 

“The impact is that it is probably one of the most contagious infections out there,” said Dr. Earl Rubin, director of the Infectious Diseases division at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. “So that’s one combined with a vaccination rate that is good but not at the level that we need to have what we call herd immunity.”

Quebec is not currently experiencing an explosion in cases. In Ontario, 84 new cases of measles have been reported in the past two weeks, nearly double the total number of cases in the province since the outbreak began in the fall.

As of Feb. 26, a total of 119 cases have been confirmed in Ontario and 23 cases are considered probable. 

“The numbers always don’t surprise me but they concern me in that if you have a susceptible population who are not vaccinated and have been exposed, the numbers will only go up,” said Dr. Rubin.

The main symptoms of measles are high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and redness of the face and body. There can be serious complications, including death for vulnerable people, especially babies who have not yet been vaccinated. 

“This virus will continue to infect people and we will have more people not only infected but affected and hospitalized and sick and unfortunately potentially even die,” said Dr.Vinh.

In Quebec, public health is working to contact people who have been in contact with the reported cases to inform them to be vigilant for the appearance of symptoms and to invite them to get vaccinated, if they have not already done so. 

If a person is not vaccinated and has been in contact with a case of measles, they must isolate themselves at home from the fifth day following their exposure to the 14th day. An individual is not contagious during the first four days following an exposure.

According to the most recent data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Manitoba and British Columbia also have some cases of measles. 

“Every person who is adequately vaccinated is a stone wall to that virus that virus has very much trouble trying to infect them,” said Dr. Vinh. “It has very much no capacity to be transmitted from a vaccinated person to somebody else and therefore that’s a dead end for the virus.”

The United States is also seeing a rise in the spread of the disease. Last week, the first measles death in a decade occurred in Texas. It was an unvaccinated child. 

“These are vaccine preventable diseases in my field of infectious diseases,” said Dr. Vinh. “A vaccine preventable disease is a trophy of medicine. It represents decades, if not a century’s worth of science that try to create ways to prevent morbidity and mortality in humans through science.”

—The Canadian Press’ health content is funded through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. Editorial choices are solely the responsibility of The Canadian Press.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews