REGINA — Health officials in Saskatchewan still consider the current measles situation "concerning," with more cases likely to come.
At a media event on Friday, Saskatchewan's Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said 37 measles cases have been confirmed in the province as of Wednesday, May 14th.
Of those 10 new cases reported in the last week or so, Shahab said southern rural parts of Sask. are starting to see local transmissions.
"We generally don’t see community transmission, [and we] have not seen them in the past 10 years."
With community transmissions, Shahab said it is harder to eliminate the virus.
Sask. has a 91 per cent vaccination rate for children starting school, but Shahab noted some communities could only have said rate of 50 to 60 per cent.
The province is seeing an increase in vaccination rates, as upwards of 2,000 people have gotten a measles shot in the past week.
Shahab stressed the importance of vaccinations.
"We know that if 100 people who are fully vaccinated get exposed to measles [only] one person will get measles."
Meanwhile, if 100 unvaccinated people were exposed to measles, all of them would get the virus, he said.
What’s preventing people from getting vaccinated could be not believing measles is real or being worried about any side effects of a vaccination, said Shahab.
"All vaccines, including the measles vaccines, are safe."
Shahab also confirmed five people have been hospitalized from measles, mainly children, developing severe pneumonia and requiring ICU care.
Around 10 per cent of measles cases can be serious, with people developing ear infections, pneumonia, or even severe swelling of the brain in rare cases.
This can lead to 5 to 10 per cent of those infected requiring hospitalization.
With 37 confirmed cases, Sask. has number of measles cases seen between 2012-2024, which was 21.
If the measles outbreak continues in Canada for a year, the country will lose its measles elimination status.
Shahab said this could mean many people in rural communities would be at risk of contracting measles.
