Mother of patient with new Vancouver measles case alarmed after Delta doctors missed diagnosis

The mother of a patient with one of the two new measles cases reported in Metro Vancouver on Friday says her child may have exposed people to the contagious disease as far away as Delta — and that doctors there missed the diagnosis.

Her concerns come as Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) struggles to contain a growing measles outbreak that now stands at 10 cases, including one whose source of exposure has yet to be confirmed.

That case relates to the mother, who contacted Global News on Friday night, saying she took her child to Delta Hospital on Feb. 20 after showing symptoms of measles, including a rash, despite receiving a measles vaccination.

The mother did not want herself or her child to be identified in order to protect the family’s privacy.

During this visit to Delta Hospital, the mother said doctors never considered measles a possibility.

WATCH: Aaron McArthur reports on the two new cases reported by Vancouver Coastal Health

3:11 Measles outbreak in Vancouver continues to spread

Instead, they said the symptoms were likely a reaction to medication from an earlier misdiagnosis of strep throat and sent the two home.

“I disagreed with that,” the mother said. “I said: ‘Can you please check for measles because of the way the rash was presenting?’ It just didn’t seem reasonable that it could be anything else.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I disagreed with that," the mother said. "I said: 'Can you please check for measles because of the way the rash was presenting?' It just didn't seem reasonable that it could be anything else."

Eventually, the mother and her child went to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, where the child was immediately put into isolation and tested after doctors saw the rash. A positive measles result was delivered the next day.

View image in full screen

1:53 Parent of measles victim speaks out

Both of the patients with new measles cases reported by VCH on Friday live in the Fraser Health Authority region. Fraser Health Authority told Global News it has conducted its own investigations into both cases and determined there is no wider risk to the public, deciding a warning did not need to be issued.

On Friday, Langley Schools shared a letter sent to parents by Fraser Health Authority on Thursday, which said one of the patients whose case is linked to the outbreak in Vancouver lives in its coverage area, but the authority repeated its stance that there was “no evidence of measles transmission into the wider Vancouver or Fraser Health community.”

VCH on Friday released a list of possible exposure locations where the patient is believed to have visited during the same period as the two visits to Delta Hospital:

• Canada Line, all stations southbound from Broadway City Hall Station to Langara 49th Station, Vancouver — Feb. 15, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Langara College Tech Building, Vancouver — Feb. 15, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Russel Sean Fitness, Richmond — Feb. 15, 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
• Sport Chek, Richmond Centre — Feb. 15, 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Starbucks, No. 1 Road and Bayview, Richmond — Feb. 17, 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Dave’s Fish and Chips, Steveston — Feb. 17, 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
• McDonald’s, Squamish — Feb. 18, 9:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
• Scandinave Spa, Whistler — Feb. 18, 11 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.

Anyone who may have visited or worked at any of these locations or businesses during the times listed above is being urged to get vaccinated immediately.

When asked on Saturday why St. Paul’s and Delta hospitals were not included in that list, VCH said people in the St. Paul’s emergency room at the time of the patient’s visit were informed individually by phone and that the locations listed above are places where not everyone could be contacted directly.

Fraser Health said everyone at Delta Hospital at the time of both visits from the patient was also contacted directly by the health authority.

The other nine cases reported over the past two weeks by Vancouver Coastal Health have been linked to three francophone schools in the Vancouver area, as has the other new case reported Friday.

WATCH: Pharmacists urge people to check their measles immunization records

1:41 Current measles outbreak prompts advice to check your immunization status

Vancouver Coastal Health has sent out a list of locations people can go in all the affected cities to get vaccinated this weekend:

Vancouver

• Raven Song Community Health Centre, 2450 Ontario St. (Saturday only, will decide Monday if continuing to offer the vaccination)
• London Drugs, 710 Granville St.
• London Drugs, 525 West Broadway
• City Centre Urgent Care Centre, 1290 Hornby St.

Richmond

• Shoppers Drug Mart, 11800 Cambie Rd.
• Shoppers Drug Mart, 6060 Minoru Blvd.
• Shoppers Drug Mart, 5555 Gilbert Rd.
• Richmond Central Medical, 150-7997 Westminster Hwy. (Saturday only)
• Terra Nova Medical Clinic, 6011 No. 1 Rd.

Squamish

• London Drugs
• Shoppers Drug Mart
• Loblaws
• Nesters Pharmacy
• Squamish Community Health (1 p.m. to 4 p.m. only)

Whistler

• Nesters Pharmacy
• Shoppers Drug Mart
• Rexall Marketplace
• Rexall Village Square
• Whistler Community Health Centre

Pemberton

• Frontier Pharmacy

—With files from Aaron McArthur and Jill Bennett