More measles exposures were reported across downtown Fort St John by Northern Health, who is asking unimmunized residents who were exposed to monitor for symptoms.
The first exposure occurred one week ago, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at Olympus Cards and Collectibles on 96A Street in the city. Anyone who visited the hobby shop from five to 10 p.m. is being put on notice by the health authority.
Two days later, on Friday, Nov. 14, an exposure took place at the city’s Walmart. This time, it spanned for two and a half hours, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Meanwhile, at the nearby North Peace Leisure Pool, another exposure was reported on that day. The period was four to seven in the evening.
Finally, a third exposure was reported from the emergency department of the Fort St John Hospital this month. It occurred overnight on Friday and led into Saturday morning. Northern Health said it began at 6:15 p.m. and ended on Nov. 15 at 2:35 a.m.
Since the beginning of this month, seven exposures have occurred in the city of less than 30,000 people. All of the events in the province were in the city this November. A high concentration of unvaccinated people can lead to a spread like the one in the northeast, according to Martin Lavoie, the deputy provincial health officer.
“We have large pockets of people (who are) not vaccinated. It doesn’t take much, you just need one case to find its way and spread it into those communities and then it spreads like wildfire,” he said, in a conference last week reacting to Canada’s measles elimination status being revoked.
A vaccination rate upwards of 90 per cent is necessary for the virus’ spread to halt, Lavoie explained. The vaccination is reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada to have upwards of a 95 per cent success rate of preventing infection when both doses have been administered.
People who cannot, or opt not to, be vaccinated should monitor for symptoms as they are at risk of developing the highly contagious virus. Early symptoms of measles include a fever and red eyes that are sensitive to light, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Symptoms may appear seven to 21 days after infection.
