Public health efforts to counter the spread of measles appear to have been successful. The outbreak of this highly contagious virus which took shape at the beginning of the year is officially over, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
In total, 51 confirmed cases have been reported in Quebec since the beginning of 2024, including 23 in the Montreal region. The last reported case was on May 4. There are also no places of exposure currently identified in Quebec.
According to the government’s technical parameters for the management of cases, contacts and outbreaks of measles in Quebec, the end of the outbreak is set for the 32nd day following the last presence of the last contagious case in an environment.
This duration was determined based on two average incubation periods, i.e. two periods of 14 days, in addition to the maximum period of transmissibility of 4 days after the appearance of the rash.
A few weeks ago, Ontario Public Health announced the death of a child who had been hospitalized with measles. The latter was not vaccinated. This is the first measles-related death in more than a decade in Ontario.
In March, the increase in measles cases and the low vaccination rate in certain Quebec schools worried public health, which undertook a vaccination campaign in targeted areas. Across the province, interventions were carried out in more than 2,200 primary schools and 730 secondary schools.
This made it possible to increase vaccination coverage against measles. Since the start of the outbreak, set for February 2, nearly 14,000 primary and secondary students have been adequately vaccinated against measles. Two doses of vaccine are required to be considered adequately vaccinated.
These results were possible, among other things, thanks to a working group set up whose mandate was to be more successful in reaching the parents of children under the age of 5 who were still not vaccinated against measles, since young people Children are at greater risk of developing serious complications.