Accumulation of new Alberta measles cases slows down as start of school year looms

The spread of measles in Alberta appears to be slowing, but experts warn people not to let down their guard as kids return to school.

While the accumulation of new measles cases in Alberta has been slowing down in recent weeks, doctors say it’s too early to declare the vaccine-controllable virus to be under control with a new school year set to start.

The province said there are six new measles cases in the province this week as of Friday, all of them in Alberta Health Services’ North Zone, to bring the province’s confirmed total this year to 1,799 cases. All but 82 of them — less than five per cent — have come outside Calgary and Edmonton, the province’s two biggest cities that account for 56 per cent of its population.

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Dr. Samantha Cheuk, a medical officer of health in Edmonton, said while seeing the number of confirmed cases slow down after reaching a peak of 142 new ones the week of July 13, she expects “lots of different changes and contextual pieces around people’s travels and returning back to school in the fall.”

“It’s a good time for people to start thinking about reevaluating all of their immunizations,” Cheuk told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

Last week, the Pan American Health Organization said Canada had the highest number of measles cases on the continent and more action is needed to address low vaccination rates.

The regional agency within the World Health Organization, which covers North and South America, says there has been an exponential rise in measles this year.

As of Aug. 8, it recorded 10,139 confirmed measles cases across ten countries, representing a 33-fold increase compared to the same period in 2024, when there were 311 cases.

Canada leads the pack with 4,548 measles cases, particularly in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario.

PAHO says low vaccination rates are primarily to blame, with the U.S. and Mexico also seeing large outbreaks over the past year.

Childhood vaccination rates have tumbled over the last several years as mistrust and misinformation on immunization caught wind during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Alberta, the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, MMR-V, is given at 12 months and 18 months. Public health nurses in the province use the vaccine registry to identify kids who are behind on their shots. Those children get a personalized letter and consent form for parents to sign that allows them to catch up on their vaccinations at school.

According to provincial health analytics, 68 per cent of Alberta children aged two in 2024 had received two measles doses, while 80 per cent of them had received one dose. Ninety-five per cent is needed to acquire herd immunity.

The percentage of Alberta children who had received two doses by age seven in 2024 was 72 per cent in 2024; by age 17, 92 per cent.

Cheuk said medical professionals administered more than 103,000 measles vaccine doses in Alberta between March 16 and Aug. 19 this year, a 57-per-cent increase over the same period last year. In Edmonton, the number of measles vaccine doses given rose by 31 per cent for the same time period.

“It does look like some of the messaging and campaigns that have been going on are really encouraging people to pursue this,” Cheuk said. “There is a desire for people to get these vaccines.”

Students in Alberta “are not required to have their immunization status” to attend school, Cheuk said.

She said if a school were to be hit by a measles outbreak and public health teams became aware of it, they would “work really closely with the school administration to reduce risk of further spread in the school or to notify them to try to ask those students to remain home while they’re sick.”

“In addition, as soon as we are able to, we’ll look through the lists of students who may be eligible for additional measures so children who have had both doses of their vaccine — they would be considered protected — wouldn’t really have to do anything further,” Cheuk said, adding public health staff could offer “some measures” to those who aren’t vaccinated “that can help prevent, hopefully, the development of those symptoms of measles and the disease progression.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson and The Canadian Press