EDMONTON – Alberta Health Services has declared the measles outbreak is over in the Edmonton Zone.
AHS will no longer be offering an early additional dose of measles vaccine to infants between the ages of six and 11 months old, which was reccommended during the outbreak.
The measles outbreak was declared at the end of April, when 22 cases of the disease had been confirmed in Alberta.
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A measles outbreak can be declared over when 42 consecutive days have passed since the last confirmed case of measles. AHS lifted the outbreak in the Calgary area on June 12.
While the outbreak is over, Dr. Gerry Predy, a senior medical officer of health with AHS, says the risk of measles is still present.
“The risk is ongoing. So again, the most important thing we can do is make sure that parents get their kids vaccinated.”
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Predy says measles immunization rates in Alberta are “not where they should be,” sitting around the high-80 percentile.
“While that might seem to people to be an excellent rate it’s still not enough to suppress measles when it comes into the community,” he explained.
“Measles is so contagious that we really need an immunization rate of above 95 per cent to provide protection.”
So far this year, 30 cases of measles have been confirmed in the province. Of those, 15 were in the Edmonton Zone.
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