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Fourteen new confirmed cases of measles over the past 24 hours means the number of cases in Alberta has now climbed to a total of 409.
A large majority of the cases — 269 — are in Alberta’s south health zone, which includes the communities of Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Taber.
More than three-quarters of the people diagnosed with the virus are children and three people are in hospital, in intensive care.
“I think it’s actually just crazy — it’s appalling,” said Dr Lenore Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta.
“For context, when many current doctors were in training, in the early 2000s, shortly after measles was eliminated as something that circulates in Canada, we would see less than 10 cases a year for many years — and now we’re getting essentially close to 10 or more cases a day.”
Dr Lenore Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta, said it was not many years ago that there would be about 10 confirmed cases of measles in Canada per year — now the province is seeing more than 10 new cases per day.
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Amongst all the provinces, Alberta is second only to Ontario where there are now 1,622 confirmed cases of measles.
The outbreak of measles in Canada is now also being blamed for a public health alert in the United States in the Seattle area of Washington state.
Residents there are being notified of a recent visitor from Canada who had a confirmed case of measles and was contagious when they visited more than a dozen different locations.
While health officials won’t say where in Canada the visitor was from, they have published a list of locations the person visited and are advising anyone who was in the area at the same time to check their vaccination status.
Health officials in Washington state are warning residents about a recent visitor from Canada with a confirmed case of measles.
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Recent outbreaks of measles in both Canada and the U.S. have also put both countries at risk of losing their measles free status.
Despite sporadic outbreaks, Canada has been considered measles-free (no endemic outbreaks) since 1998 and the United States since 2000.
In Texas, where there have been more that 700 confirmed cases of measles this year, Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said the actual number of cases is likely much higher than currently being reported.
Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston is concerned we could soon see a resurgence in other serious childhood diseases in unvaccinated people.
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With most of the cases occurring in unvaccinated populations, in rural areas of both countries, Hotez is concerned we could soon see a re-emergence of other dangerous childhood diseases.
“I sketched out a map of the Great Plains, all the way from southern Alberta down to West Texas — and that seems to be the hot zone for where we’re seeing breakthrough childhoods and infectious diseases,” said Hotez.
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“And it may not only be measles. What about whooping cough or what about diphtheria — or even polio? The answer is, typically, measles is the first one you see because measles is so highly transmissible.
“To get the measles outbreak under control, in the areas where there’s a lot of non-immune individuals, this has to happen soon — and I think it will require a really concerted public health effort,” said Saxinger. ”
In a response to a Global News inquiry, the Alberta Health Minister, Adriana LaGrange’s office insisted the Alberta government “is taking the current measles outbreaks in the province seriously,” pointing out that the province recently announced a new advertising campaign called “Don’t get measles, get immunized” includes radio, print, digital and social media advertising.
LaGrange’s office insists the campaign is having an impact, pointing out that between the weeks of March 16 and April 27, a total of 37,242 measles vaccines were administered in the province — nearly 68 per cent more than during the same period last year.
But what concerns Saxinger is “people who are less likely to be vaccinated are not necessarily reached via social media and traditional media campaigns — so it’s not clear that’s going to have an immediate impact on on the current spread in some areas.”
“To me this is actually a really particularly terrible outbreak,” said Saxinger. “In a whole sea of various catastrophes going on worldwide, this one is fully preventable.”
More information on measles in Alberta, including the latest number of confirmed cases, symptoms and information on vaccinations, is available online at alberta.ca/measles.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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