British Columbia currently has no active measles cases, as the two previously active cases in its northeastern pocket are no longer contagious.
No new inactive cases have been reported. The highly contagious virus is considered active for four days after the onset of the red, itchy, measly rash it is named after. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said if no rash is present, a person is considered a carrier for ten days after their symptoms begin, or they test positive.
“The measles virus spreads through the air when a person who is infected breathes, coughs, sneezes or talks. It may also spread through direct contact with fomites or secretions from the nose and throat,” the Public Health Agency of Canada explained.
Measles is making a resurgence across Canada. In British Columbia, the cases have been concentrated in the northeastern region of Northern Health. So far this year, that area has accounted for 241 of the province’s 315 total cases.
Seventy per cent of cases reported by the centre were in children under the age of 18. The consensus among major medical voices, including the Public Health Agency of Canada, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, and Northern Health, is vaccination is the easiest way to prevent the disease from continuing its spread nationwide.
Only 3 per cent of people who were confirmed to have the measles received both doses of a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Eighty-eight per cent of confirmed cases were in unimmunized people, according to the centre.
