Health officials make youth vaccinate plea amid local measles, mumps cases

Public health officials in Elgin and Oxford counties are urging parents to keep their children’ vaccinations up-to-date after potential measles cases and a suspected cluster of mums infections.

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Southwestern Public Health, the health unit in Elgin and Oxford counties, issued a public advisory Wednesday promoting childhood vaccination as it identifies contacts of the individuals involved, saying both vaccine hesitancy and travel have increased the circulation of the two diseases in the community.

“We have people who have been in contact with measles, so we’re on high alert,” acting medical officer of health Joyce Lock said Wednesday.

“We have a case of the mumps and other people connected to that individual who are starting to develop symptoms, but we don’t have test results yet.”

The health unit is monitoring some individuals following measles exposure, Lock said. The details of their possible exposure, including where the exposure happened, their age and community were not released by the health unit.

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Since the potential mumps cluster appears to be contained, there is no public health need to disclose the individuals’ community in Elgin or Oxford, Lock said.

Measles is spread through the air and can cause complications including pneumonia, ear infections, brain infections and, in rare cases, death. People who have had a measles-containing vaccine, have been previously infected, or who were born before 1970 are generally protected from infection.

Mumps is a transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Symptoms may include painful salivary glands with swollen cheeks, fever, headache, muscle aches and trouble chewing.

Most people recover from a mumps infection, but in rare cases it can cause deafness, meningitis or infections in the reproductive organs.

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People with symptoms of either disease are asked to avoid contact with other people and to call their health-care provider to arrange testing.

The health unit wants members of the public to know their vaccination status and is hoping the advisory will “empower people to help themselves,” Lock said.

“People are infectious before they have symptoms, both for mumps and for measles,” she said. “The very best armor you can have is an immune system that’s ready to beat back those viruses with your own antibodies you got from the vaccine.”

Addressing vaccine hesitancy always has been part of the job of public health, Lock said, both locally and across Canada.

“We’ve been so fortunate with our vaccines that we’ve managed to keep these viral and other infectious illnesses at low incidence rates. It’s rare people get these diseases and rare to see what can happen if they do,” Lock said.

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“People have forgotten how serious these diseases can be. They’ve started to worry more about the side-effects of the vaccine, as minimal as they may be.”

As of Oct. 23, 2024, there have been 25 confirmed cases of measles in Ontario this year, data from Public Health Ontario shows. Sixteen of the cases were linked to travel, and two of those cases resulted in six additional linked cases.

One of the 2024 cases was in Middlesex-London Health Unit jurisdiction, prompting a public alert due to potential public exposures on transit and restaurants. Another case was identified in the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

As of Oct. 16, there have been 31 reported cases of mumps in Ontario, according to data from Public Health Ontario.

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