Cases of measles in the London region have jumped to 16 this year, health officials warned Wednesday after releasing a list of busy places visited by people infected with the highly contagious virus.
As always, public health doctors were tight-lipped about the individual cases, citing privacy concerns, but said most of the cases are related to a larger, unvaccinated cluster linked to a broader outbreak in southwestern Ontario, according to Dr. Joanne Kearon, the associate medical officer of health for the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
All but one of the 16 people were not vaccinated against the disease, she added, and the majority of cases are in kids between the ages of five and nine. The youngest person to get measles is six months old, and the oldest is 35 years old, Kearon said.
The more significant outbreak has been linked to a large gathering of Mennonites in New Brunswick in the fall, the province’s chief medical officer of health has said.
“Cases could spread in any unvaccinated community or population but are disproportionately affecting some Mennonite, Amish, and other Anabaptist communities due to a combination of under-immunization and exposure to measles in certain areas,” Dr. Kieran Moore wrote to public health officials across the province earlier this month.
Elgin, Oxford, and Norfolk counties have large populations of Mennonite and Amish communities. The outbreaks have forced the London Health Sciences Centre to tighten its visitor rules, and Southwestern Public Health officials are offering vaccines to infants that normally wouldn’t be eligible.
Here in Middlsex-London, the cases that aren’t linked to the broader outbreak are related to international travel, or the origin isn’t known, Kearon said.
The measles virus can live in the air for up to two hours once an infected person leaves an area and can infect nine out of 10 unvaccinated people. People are asked to monitor themselves for symptoms of the illness for up to 21 days from the date of exposure.
The health unit released the following list of places visited by infected people in the previous week:
- March 20 – Costco on Wonderland Road North, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- March 20 – Walmart on Fanshawe Park Road West from 2:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- March 22 – Masonville Place from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
- March 22 – St. Michael’s Parish from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- March 23 – St. Joseph’s Urgent Care from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- March 23 – Victoria Hospital adult ER from 1:20 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
“We are intending to use that exposure list as a way to communicate to the public all of the potential places that the public may have been exposed to measles,” Kearon said. “The most important thing that people can do to protect themselves is to get vaccinated.”
The Middlsex-London region has a 95 per cent vaccination rate for those over 17 years old, so the overall risk is low, she added.
“Measles vaccine with one dose is 90 per cent effective and with two doses it’s 97 per cent effective,” Kearon said.
The health unit previously released the following list of places where people may have been exposed to measles:
- March 14 – Tiger Jacks on Wharncliffe Road South from 3:20 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
- March 14 to March 15 – Jack’s on Richmond Street from 9:30 p.m. to 4:10 a.m.
- March 15 – Burrito Boyz on Central Ave from 2:15 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
- March 15 – St. Michael’s Parish from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- March 16 – Binge Bins on Wonderland Road South from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- March 16 – Argle Mall Walmart from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- March 16 Carter’s Osh Kosh at 1925 Dundas St. from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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