Public Health Ontario (PHO) confirmed this week that a child under the age of five has died from the measles virus.
This is the first measles death in the state in 10 years. As of Wednesday, public health officials said there had been five reported cases of measles among unvaccinated children, including an infant who died from the highly contagious virus. Announced.
As of May 15, there were a total of 22 measles cases, all of them in people born after 1970. This is an increase in the positivity rate since PHO's last summary on May 9th.
The PHO noted that 12 of the children were not vaccinated and the vaccination status of one child was unknown. Four adults had received at least two previous measles-containing vaccinations, two had not been immunized, and three were unknown.
“Due to Canada's successful measles eradication and high vaccination rates, measles is rare in Ontario,” the PHO wrote. “As a result, measles cases are primarily travel-related (often referred to as 'imported measles'). As measles activity increases globally, measles cases are starting to increase in Ontario. ”
Six of the 22 confirmed measles cases were reported in Toronto through Toronto Public Health, and another six occurred outside of Hamilton. 15% of positive cases were travel-related.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital, said: “Despite the misconception that measles is a harmless childhood disease, it claims more than 130,000 lives worldwide each year, the majority of which are “It's a child,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital.
Symptoms of measles usually include a high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a characteristic rash that starts on the face and spreads to other parts of the body. The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine is highly effective in preventing measles and its complications.
