Southern Health authority issues measles advisory as case numbers rise in region
The Southern Health authority has issued a public advisory amid a growing number of measles cases in the region.
The advisory, released Thursday, urges people living in southern Manitoba to 'remain vigilant and ensure that all eligible family members are fully immunized against measles.'
The provincial government issues weekly updates, but Thursday's advisory was the first public message to come directly from Southern Health-Santé Sud.
Dr. Mahmoud Khodaveisi, the regional authority's medical officer of health, said a decision was made to warn the public because the increasing number of cases are, largely, coming from the area.
'This is a significant rise in Manitoba,' he said Thursday. 'We haven't seen this number of cases in the Southern Health (region), I would say, since measles was eliminated in Canada in 1998.'
In some patients the virus can lead to complications, including ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis that can cause seizures, brain damage or death. Measles occurring during pregnancy has been associated with spontaneous abortion, premature delivery and babies born with low birth weight.
Most people recover fully from measles within two to three weeks. Complications are more common in infants and adults and those with weakened immune systems.
All four exposure sites listed in the province's weekly measles update released Tuesday were in southern Manitoba — two in Winkler, one in Steinbach and one in Manitou.
Putting out the message has had a notable impact, Khodaveisi said — Southern Health-Santé Sud has set up pop-up immunization clinics across the region, and officials have noticed an increase in the number of measles vaccine doses being ordered by primary-health providers since April.
'We try just to be there to provide evidence-based information,' he said. 'But it's not (fixed in) one day, two days, it takes time.'
There have now been 105 confirmed and eight probable measles cases in the province since February. Probable cases, Khodaveisi said, are typically patients who have measles-like symptoms and are in a community or were at an exposure site with high measles activity, but refuse to be tested.
A doctor working out of Winkler is happy to see the health region put out the advisory, but isn't sure how many people it will convert.
'How many additional people you (will) persuade to have their kids or themselves vaccinated, I don't know. But is it going to be negative? I don't think so,' Dr. Don Klassen said.
'I think the people who clearly made up their minds and won't get vaccinated aren't going to get swayed by this; the people who are convinced that vaccinating for measles is a good thing, they've already done it.'
Similar to the fight to protect people from COVID-19 at the pandemic's peak, he said, the only way he's seen people change their minds is through conversations with a trusted medical professional.
'You just hope that they will take your advice and and get with the program.'
Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens agreed and said he hopes families on the fence about getting vaccinated take their questions and concerns to their doctor.
'Conversations are happening, definitely, in our community,' he said.
Siemens said he recognizes a persisting hesitancy lingers in the region despite best efforts from medical professionals.
'I think the communication piece is fairly strong, but traditionally, even around — as we're now seeing — normal childhood immunizations, there is some hesitancy in the Southern Health region, even within high immigrant populations,' he said.
'It doesn't necessarily even need to be the existing groups of people that are here, there are people that are coming from other places in the world who sometimes struggle to believe everything that they hear from government. So it takes some additional time to get that communication through.'
Some exposure sites have been turned into vaccine clinics and information hubs.
Garden Valley School Division hosted a Southern Health immunization clinic at Southwood School after exposures occurred there and on school buses in April.
In the time since, two other schools in the region — Plum Coulee School and Prairie Dale School — have been identified as exposure sites.
School division superintendent Dan Ward said they will continue to 'work closely with Southern Health–Santé Sud' in notifying families of possible exposures.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak AbasReporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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