Death of a young child in Ontario from measles

Ontario's Public Health Organization (PHO) confirmed this week that a child under the age of five has died from the measles virus, the first measles-related death in the province in a decade. According to the organization, since Wednesday, there have been five cases of measles among unvaccinated children who required hospitalization, including an infant who died from the virus. As of May 15, 22 cases of measles have been reported. All of them were born after 1970.

The organization noted that 12 of the children had not been vaccinated, and the status of one child was unknown. Four adults were also vaccinated with at least two doses of measles vaccine, two were not vaccinated and the status of three was unknown.

"Measles has been rare in Ontario due to high levels of immunization and vaccination," said Ontario Health. As a result, measles cases have mostly occurred during travel to other countries. Due to the increase of the measles virus in the world, Ontario has also seen more cases of measles."

Six of the 22 confirmed measles cases have been in Toronto and the other six outside Hamilton. 15% of the positive cases were related to travel.

According to experts, despite the misconception that measles is a harmless childhood disease, more than 130,000 people worldwide die from this virus every year, mostly children.

Measles symptoms usually include high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is very effective in preventing measles and its complications.

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