Quebec measles outbreak linked to low vaccination rates, 31 cases in four months

A case of measles has been confirmed at the Bell Centre, with an infected individual attending a Montreal Canadiens hockey game on March 3.

In Quebec, it’s the 31st confirmed case of the disease once thought to be gone for good.

Experts say the comeback is due to declining vaccination rates.

“You’re a victim of your success because when you eliminated disease, you don’t see it,” said Dr. Don Vinh, infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). “Then subsequent generations don’t think of it.”

“It becomes this abstract concept and then you think you don’t need the vaccine,” he added. “When, of course, the disease is eliminated because of the vaccine.”

Montreal had a vaccination rate of 84 per cent in 2024, but experts say that even a 92 per cent vaccination rate isn’t good enough to prevent the spread. 

“In some parts of Montreal, the rates are even 30 to 50 per cent,” explained Dr. Vinh. “So you can see that the vaccination rates are low.”

“And when the vaccination rates are low, you create these, these lanes if you will,” he added. “These super highways of vulnerable people.”

“The number we’re looking for is a 95 per cent uptake to get something called herd immunity,” said Dr. Earl Rubin, Director of the Infectious Diseases Division at Montreal Children’s Hospital.

One person with measles can infect up to 18 other people.

It could be fatal and it’s especially dangerous for pregnant people, infants under one, the elderly and immunocompromised. 

“People are dying right now in the United States from measles,” said Dr. Vinh. “And pneumonia is one of the major causes.”

“The other problem with measles is that in the short term, in some people, it can infect the brain and that can lead to what’s called an encephalitis.”

“And that causes things like seizures,” he added. “Confusion, strokes, or a coma.”

Experts point to vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation as one of the reasons rates have gone down. 

“Early 2000s, there was a paper that was published in The Lancet by a ‘physician’,” said Dr. Rubin. “I put physician in quotation marks. His name was Andrew Wakefield, and he published falsified data that linked the MMR vaccine to autism.”

“Eventually that was investigated,” he added. “The article was withdrawn. He lost his medical license. It was all falsified data, but the damage was done.”

“In some other countries right now, there was a lot of fake pseudoscience that is being touted as a response to these measles outbreaks,” said Dr. Vinh. “There are ridiculous proposals. Like take vitamin A or take cod liver oil or have measles parties — do not do that.”

“That is dangerous,” he added.

Montreal public health says it is possible that anyone who was at the Bell Centre on March 3 may have been exposed and should monitor for symptoms until March 24.

Signs include fever, cough, runny nose, red and light-sensitive eyes, and pimples and/or redness on the skin.

“If people wanna know, there is a magic bullet that they can take to protect themselves from measles,” said Dr. Vinh. “And that’s called a vaccine.”