Sask. health officials urge vaccination as measles infections spread

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch tells CTV News that full immunization is the best way to prevent the spread of measles.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is asking people to seek vaccination to stem the spread of measles in the province.

Last week, the health authority warned residents in Saskatoon and North Battleford of an outbreak in the region, with a list of locations where an infectious patient was known to have attended before diagnosis.

At the time, there were three known cases of the highly-infectious disease across the province.

Now, the SHA says six patients have been diagnosed so far — three in the southwest, two in the southeast and one in the northwest.

Dr. David Torr, SHA medical health officer, told reporters the latest case was diagnosed in a patient in southwest Saskatchewan on Thursday morning. He said the adult patient was never immunized against measles, and likely contracted it during recent international travel through Mexico and the U.S.

Torr says this recent case underscores the importance of vaccination in fighting the spread of measles, because “we don’t have a concrete treatment for measles.”

“Right now we are — strongly — encouraging folks to come forward, get that vaccine,” he said.

“Because one of the things with measles is that it is extremely contagious. It doesn’t take much for it to be spread to other folks. If one enters the room and is infectious, it doesn’t take much for the rest of the folks in the room to get infected.”

Torr says it’s difficult to accurately track vaccinations in the province. The rate often varies widely between different networks, so the data we have can’t necessarily be applied uniformly across the province.

If 95 per cent of people are immunized for measles, “we would have extremely good herd immunity,” said Torr.

“We only have six cases so far in Saskatchewan. We don’t want to see it going up to 10 to 17. Like Alberta has shot up so fast — up to 570 and still counting.”

Torr said the symptoms of measles infection in unvaccinated people can be “quite severe.”

“The complications can be very, very severe, all the way up to death.”

Symptoms of measles generally begin with cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes and fever.

A red, blotchy rash appears three to five days after the onset of symptoms, starting on the face and spreading downwards. The contagious period lasts about four days before and after the onset of the rash.

Complications from measles infection can include diarrhea, ear infection, pneumonia and encephalitis — a swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage.