Alberta reports 1,314 confirmed measles cases since March, surpassing U.S. number

National Post

6 days ago

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She noted that it's expected for every 1,000 cases, one to three people will die.
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'Quite a large number — maybe even as many as one in five — will get a bacterial infection after measles,' she said.
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'That's not nothing, that's a big deal.'
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Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the United Conservative government should step up public health awareness efforts before Alberta starts seeing its own severe outcomes.
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'In a time where we have a massive public health outbreak, we are seeing absolute silence from this government,' Nenshi said.
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'This is absolute dereliction of duty and it has very real consequences on children who are getting very, very ill.'
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Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange's office did not immediately respond to questions Monday.
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Saxinger also said she thought recent actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump could be undermining the trustworthiness of U.S. data.
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In March, the Trump administration moved to cut more than US$11 billion in public health funding across dozens of states, though in May a federal judge granted an injunction to block the cuts after 23 states filed a lawsuit.
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'I'm not sure … the data infrastructure is as reliable as it used to be,' Saxinger said about the United States.
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'When you introduce a lot of chaos and disruption into a system that really relies on an organizational structure to make things happen properly, there's going to be problems.'
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The two professors said it's unlikely Alberta or other provinces dealing with measles outbreaks will be able to get transmission under control before the fall, which is when Canada could lose its long-held measles eradication status.
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Jenne said losing the status might not mean much for many Albertans when it comes to day-to-day life, though it could mean other countries might implement travel recommendations and vaccine requirements for those visiting Canada.
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'Those things can impact things as far-ranging as tourism to amateur sport visits to even business meetings if Canada is seen as an infection risk to other countries' populations,' he said.
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'This is something we really need to avoid, but it is not looking very likely that we will be able to avoid it, at least in the short term.'
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