Alberta Knew Measles Was Harming Pregnant Patients-But Stayed Silent | The Walrus

"Then, in November 2025, our international shame. The Pan American Health Organization revoked Canada's measles elimination status, following more than a year of sustained transmission of the same strain. We'd eliminated the virus in 1998 and held onto the status for twenty-seven years owing to a safe and effective vaccine, but as vaccine hesitancy grew and vaccination rates dropped, susceptibility to this once-vanquished disease skyrocketed."

"By March 2025, measles had made it to northern Alberta, and by the summer, the province reported more measles cases than the entire United States. (The population of Alberta is 5 million; the US is almost seventy times greater, at 342 million.) In October, we learned a baby in the province had died from congenital measles, though details were scant."

Measles returned to Canada beginning in late October 2024 when an infected traveller arrived in New Brunswick, producing an outbreak largely among unvaccinated children. The virus reached northern Alberta by March 2025 and by summer Alberta reported more cases than the entire United States. In October a baby in Alberta died from congenital measles. In November 2025 the Pan American Health Organization revoked Canada’s measles elimination status after more than a year of continuous transmission of the same strain. Falling vaccination rates and rising vaccine hesitancy increased population susceptibility, producing serious risks for pregnant people and newborns.

Read at The Walrus