The first of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s bi-weekly updates for the week of Sept. 8 showed yet another increase in measles cases in Northern Health, with six active cases being reported.
This number of active cases is up by two since the centre’s last report from the fourth, which said there were four active carriers in the health authority. Northern Health also saw one new probable case and six inactive confirmed measles cases.
Provincially, there have been 250 confirmed measles patients in 2025. 49 per cent of these patients have been children aged five-years-old to 17-years-old and 89 per cent of people who got measles this year have not been immunized.
Immunization, according to Northern Health, the centre for disease control, and the vast majority of public health agencies, is the easiest, and most effective, way to avoid catching this highly contagious virus.
Measles can be spread to anyone who is in the vicinity of an infected patient. The virus remains in the air after an infected person leaves and is spread through the inhalation of tainted air. It can also be spread by touching an infected person’s mucus or a contaminated surface.
Vaccinations may be administered to people who were recently exposed or those with early cases of measles, according to Northern Health. The two-dose measles-mumps-rubella immunization is available for anyone who is not pregnant and over the age of one-year-old, one dose is 95 per cent effective at preventing measles and the second dose boosts the efficacy to 99 per cent.
