Heather Wright/The Independent

Public Health Ontario says there have now been six measles cases in Lambton County – three more than the local public health unit had reported.

The information is contained in the latest update of the measles outbreak in Ontario.

Southern Ontario is the middle of a measles outbreak. Public Health Ontario reported 557 cases across the province from Jan. 1 to March 26.

About 75 per cent of the cases were in children. PHO says 96 percent of those children were not vaccinated.

Vaccines had basically eradicated measles in Canada. Between 2013 and 2023, there were 101 confirmed cases of the virus which mostly occurred in people who had been travelling.

Most of the cases – over 250 – are in the Norfolk/Oxford county area. Chatham-Kent also has a large number of the once extinct virus with 39 reported cases.

As the province deals with the ongoing outbreak, Lambton Public Health issued a warning to residents saying people who were at Bethel Pentecostal Church in Sarnia March 21 may have been exposed to the measles virus.

Officials say people who were at the London Line church Friday between 7 and 10 pm may have been in contact with someone with the virus. Public Health is working to find people who may have been exposed.

The exposure was the same day Lambton Public Health announced its first case of measles as the province deals with a major outbreak of the virus which was once virtually eradicated in Ontario. March 23, officials said another person had tested positive for measles. The third case was linked to the concern for exposure at Bethel church.

Lambton’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Karalyn Dueck had said she was expecting more cases during a news conference last week, even though Lambton has a very high rate of immunization in school children.

About 90 per cent of seven year-olds in Lambton have been vaccinated against the measles and about 96.5 per cent of 17 year-olds are protected according to data from the 2023-2024 school year.
Measles are very contagious and Dueck says a 95 per cent immunization rate is needed to prevent its spread.

Children who haven’t been vaccinated are most vulnerable and are at risk of pneumonia, hearing loss, encephalitis, seizures.

Aside from the possible exposure Friday at Bethel Pentecostal Church, public health released a list of places, where people may have been exposed to the virus. They include;

• Confederation Central School, March 17-21 between 9 am and 5 pm
• ARI Pediatric Dentistry Sarnia, March 21 from 9:30 to 2:30 pm
• Sarnia Upward Basketball Practice, March 17 and a game at the same location March 22.
• Bluewater Health’s emergency department March 19 at 7 pm to March 20 at 2 am.

If you may have been exposed, you can use public health’s online measles exposure risk assessment tool to determine if you may have the virus.

If you suspect you do, public health asks you to contact your family doctor to let them know and, if you need to visit the emergency department, call ahead so health care staff can prepare.

Dueck says vaccines are the best way to prevent measles. Normally, toddlers are vaccinated around 12 to 15 months. There is also a booster given between the ages of four and six years-old.
Those vaccines, she says, are 98 per cent effective.

Public health says some high risk people who were exposed to measles may be offered another vaccine, particularly if they had only received one dose as a child.