Measles continues to surge in Ontario's southwest as provincial cases pass 1.6K

Officials with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) are reporting 104 new measles cases in one week, accounting for more than half of the provincial case for the same period.

It's the third straight week the numbers have risen in the region, which includes Oxford and Elgin counties, as well as St. Thomas and Woodstock.

Overall, Ontario reported 182 new cases of measles between May 6 and May 13, putting the province at a total case count of 1,622. SWPH's tally of 104 new cases was collected between May 8, and May 15.

The area covered by SWPH continues to far outpace other public health jurisdictions as the hotbed of the outbreak. Southwestern Ontario is overall where the majority of cases are found.

Here's how the latest Public Health Ontario numbers from October 28, 2024 to May 13 break down:

• Southwestern Public Health: 574 (35.6 per cent)
• Grand Erie Public Health: 222 (13.7 per cent)
• Huron Perth Public Health: 192 (11.8 per cent)
• Chatham-Kent Public Health: 155 (9.6 per cent)
• Windsor-Essex County Health: 122 (7.5 per cent)
• South East Health: 80 (4.9 per cent)
• Region of Waterloo Public Health: 59 (3.6 per cent)
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 53 (3.3 per cent)
• Middlesex-London Health Unit: 42 (2.6 per cent)
• Grey Bruce Health Unit: 40 (2.5 per cent)
• North Bay Parry Sound District: 30 (1.8 per cent)
• Lambton Public Health: 17 (1.0 per cent)
• Northeastern Public Health: 13 (0.8 per cent)
• Niagara Region Public Health: 11 (0.7 per cent)
• Algoma Public Health: 7 (0.4 per cent)
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 2 (0.1 per cent)
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit: 2 (0.1 per cent)
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services: 1 (0.1 per cent)

Although new cases continue to accelerate in the SWPH region, the health unit's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Ninh Tran, said it's partially due to better detection.

"When we investigate a case, one of the natural consequences is that we often find other cases that were occurring in the same household and were not previously reported," Tran said. "Those unreported cases are then added to our data. Most of these cases are no longer infectious."

The doctor also reiterated that measles is highly contagious, and "spreads rapidly through pockets of our community where there are people who are unvaccinated or have no immunity to measles."

Many of those pockets are Mennonite and Amish religious communities, which contain high concentrations of unvaccinated people, Ontario's top doctor Kearon Moore said in a letter to health units back in March.

According to Tran, outreach documents about vaccinations have been translated into Low German. SWPH is also working on outreach efforts geared toward summer camps and seasonal agricultural workers.

In the rural communities at the epicentre of the outbreak, attitudes vary from worry to indifference.

Aylmer resident Nancy Teason spoke to CBC News while on the job at a local grocer. She said she's been affected by the virus, but isn't concerned. Her granddaughter recently had measles, and ended up in hospital before making a full recovery.

Teason said that, like her granddaughter, the other grandkids in the family aren't vaccinated.

"I'm not really worried about it," she said. "I come from Mexico and I know that when I was a child there were measles. I'm personally ... not scared."

Roughly half an hour east in Tillsonburg, business owner Holly Silverthorn told CBC News her opinion differs.

"I feel very unsettled. It is a preventable illness that we could have had prevented all around," she said.

"My son, he works as a butcher, and told me that one of his friends's butcher shops had to be shut down because everybody there had measles."

Those interested in vaccination are encouraged to visit their local public health unit's website.