Measles-free Canada? Not any more

It is an ignominious moment in modern Canadian history.

This country — our country, by all accounts one of the most advanced, enlightened and compassionate nations on Earth — is poised to lose its status as a measles-free nation.

The news is cause for great concern. It should also be a source of shared Canadian shame and a motivator for a serious discussion about public health and responsible citizenship.

According to the World Health Organization, the elimination of measles is achieved when transmission of the disease is halted within a 12-month period. Canada has been considered measles-free since 1998, but that status could cease at month’s end because an outbreak that started in New Brunswick in October 2024 continues to spread.

In November, the Pan American Health Organization, the regional arm of the WHO, will hold the annual meeting of its Measles and Rubella Elimination Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission and Canada’s status as a nation that has eradicated measles will be up for discussion.

To date, Canada has recorded more than 5,000 cases of measles this year — a figure that more than doubles the total number of cases for the past 25 years.

It’s infuriating, because it’s so completely unnecessary. Measles is a highly contagious airborne viral disease that can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis. The risk of severe illness or death is highest for infants, children, pregnant women and people whose health is otherwise compromised.

Prior to the widespread introduction of an effective vaccine in 1963, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths annually worldwide. After the vaccine’s arrival, measles cases in Canada decreased by more than 99 per cent.

Problem solved. Until… Except …

The advent of the internet brought many changes to societal behaviours and beliefs, among them the ability for nefarious actors to disseminate misinformation and a seemingly insatiable appetite among certain consumers of online content to access, accept and amplify those distortions within like-minded malleable communities.

The so-called anti-vax movement dates back to the late 1700s, when skeptics resisted the introduction of the smallpox vaccine (the wide distribution of which eventually led to the eradication of that deadly scourge) and there have been pockets of vaccine resistance whenever and wherever efforts to immunize against contagious diseases have been undertaken.

But an alarming acceleration of anti-vax activism — at first targeted specifically at the safe and effective measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine but later, fueled by opposition to COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, expanded to include immunization in general — has occurred as a result of online glorification of fringe theories and discredited studies questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

In Canada, the uptake of the two-dose MMR vaccination has fallen to around 76 per cent — well below the 95 per cent required to ensure “herd immunity” across a broad population. The result is a measles resurgence, particularly in populations described as unvaccinated or undervaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

Interestingly, and alarmingly, the anti-vax sentiment that has propelled the return of previously eradicated diseases in human populations seems now to have spread into the realm of pet care, with some veterinarians reporting dog and cat owners refusing to get their pets immunized against deadly diseases such as rabies.

It could fairly be argued the most dangerous epidemic these days is ignorance and the online dissemination of nonsense to an expanding population of self-styled experts who “do their own research” has eliminated any possibility of achieving herd immunity against idiocy.

As a result, Canada is once again contending with a dreadful disease that had long been eradicated by science and common sense.