Canada is in the middle of the largest measles outbreak it has seen in generations, with 2,515 cases so far this year as of May 17, which is the most recent data reported by Health Canada as of Monday.
Despite the spread of the disease B.C. is not considering making measles immunization mandatory for attending school, as it is in Ontario and New Brunswick, the Health Ministry told The Tyee in an emailed statement.
“There is no requirement from the province for students to be vaccinated to attend school, or that students’ immunization records be provided as part of school registration,” the ministry said.
Instead its strategy is mostly a reactive one, where it will use data to respond to outbreaks and exposures. B.C. will also encourage people to get vaccinated and will open school-based immunization clinics in some areas with low vaccination rates.
Measles can cause brain swelling, which can lead to seizures, deafness and brain damage. It kills around one in every 3,000 people, according to HealthLinkBC. In the United States, 40 per cent of children who get measles are hospitalized.
Measles can also cause what’s known as immune amnesia, meaning an infection can wipe out up to 70 per cent of a patient’s antibodies, said Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, a retired emergency physician who helped prevent a major SARS outbreak in B.C. when her team isolated Vancouver’s first SARS patient. This hugely increases a person’s risk of getting sick and dying from an infection years after they recover from measles.
Not making the MMR vaccine a requirement to attend school is the wrong strategy to take with one of the most infectious diseases on the planet, Filiatrault told The Tyee. Filiatrault is a past member of Protect Our Province BC and a current member of the Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition.
The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Measles, also known as rubeola, is different from rubella, which is also known as German measles. Rubella can cause the most harm when it infects a pregnant person, often leading to miscarriage or stillbirth, deafness, eye problems, heart defects or liver, spleen and brain damage, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
“Public health should be about protecting the most vulnerable,” Filiatrault said, adding that babies and immunocompromised people, such as people getting cancer treatment, cannot be vaccinated against measles.
Waiting for outbreaks to happen before pushing for widespread vaccination is a problem and public health officers need to “have the guts to say, ‘If you want to go to school you need to be vaccinated,’” she said.
With school wrapping up next month, now is an excellent time to roll out school-based mass vaccination campaigns across the province to catch all school-aged kids up on any vaccines they might be missing, Filiatrault said. Schools should also introduce vaccine mandates that will kick in for September when kids come back to school, she added.
Herd immunity for measles requires 95 per cent of the total population to be vaccinated.
In Canada about 87 per cent of adults are vaccinated against measles.
But that drops in certain geographic areas and populations. Only 62 per cent of school-aged kids are vaccinated against measles in the Kootenay Boundary Health Service Delivery Area, according to the B.C. Childhood Immunization Coverage Dashboard, for example.
B.C.’s routine childhood vaccination program recommends kids get their first measles shot at 12 months, and their second between four and six years old as they enter school. This schedule can be accelerated to the first shot at six months and the second between one and four years old if the family is travelling to areas where measles is spreading.
The measles vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine, meaning the vaccine exposes people to a weakened version of the virus, which their immune system can fight off. Side-effects can include mild flu-like symptoms and feeling tired for a day or so, Dr. Jia Hu, interim medical director of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s immunization programs and vaccine-preventable diseases team, previously told The Tyee.
One dose of the vaccine offers between 85 and 95 per cent protection, and two doses offer 97 to 100 per cent protection from getting sick if exposed, Hu said.
It’s safe to get another measles vaccine if you’re not sure if you’ve had one or two doses, he added.
Anyone born before 1970 is assumed to be immune to measles because they would have been exposed as a child, but adults born after 1970 should get two doses of the vaccine, the ministry said.
There are more measles cases in Canada than in the entire United States right now, which is concerning considering Canada has a smaller population and therefore a larger percentage of people are sick with measles, Filiatrault said.
In the week of May 11 to May 17, which is the most recent data available, Health Canada said there were 194 new cases in Ontario, 135 new cases in Alberta, 15 in Manitoba, eight in Saskatchewan and two in B.C.
B.C.’s cases will likely increase in September after people from Alberta travel to the Okanagan for summer holidays, Filiatrault said.
From 1998 to 2024, measles was considered eliminated in Canada. Any infections that occurred during that time among Canadians came from travelling abroad.
Now Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, has warned that measles could become endemic, meaning people will continue to catch measles within Canada.
B.C. has been collecting data on which school-aged kids are vaccinated against measles, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningococcal disease (a bacterial infection that can infect the lining of the brain, spinal cord or blood) since 2019 through its Vaccine Status Reporting Regulation.
The VSRR requires all school-aged kids in public, independent and home schools to provide up-to-date vaccination records for the Provincial Immunization Registry.
The Health Ministry says it will be able to quickly respond to outbreaks and exposures using this database. That could mean recommending people immediately get vaccinated after an exposure to measles, or prohibiting unimmunized or under-immunized children from attending school until an outbreak is over.
The ministry didn’t directly answer a question about at what point it might consider making vaccines mandatory.
The measles vaccine is free in Canada and available at most pharmacies for anyone four and older.
In its emailed statement, the Health Ministry said there’s been an increase in the number of people getting vaccinated against measles since the outbreak was first reported in Eastern Canada.
From Oct. 1, 2024, to May 19, 2025, 72,548 doses of the measles vaccine were administered in B.C., of which more than half were kids getting their routine childhood vaccines, the ministry said.
Compared with the same time last year, that’s an 11 per cent increase in people getting vaccinated outside of routine childhood vaccinations, the ministry said. There’s also been an increase in people uploading their immunization records through the province’s Health Gateway portal, where British Columbians can log in and review their health records.
“If people are missing vaccines, now is the time to book an appointment to get up to date,” the ministry said.
Measles cases are often the canary in the coal mine and a sign that kids aren’t up to date on other key childhood vaccinations, Filiatrault said.
On Monday Vancouver Coastal Health said there was an increasing number of pertussis infections (whooping cough) in the Pemberton area. The health authority was encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Eight projects are underway in B.C., funded through the federal Immunization Partnership Fund, that are working to build trust in the health-care system and improve vaccination uptake in under-vaccinated communities by focusing on education around the risks of measles infections and the benefits of vaccination, the ministry said.
