More cases of measles expected in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A measles outbreak in the greater Vancouver area is not over yet.

More cases are expected to appear as health workers continue to ask people to make sure they’re adequately vaccinated.

Dr. Réka Gustafson, a medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health, believes the outbreak is ‘reasonably well-contained.’

“We don’t anticipate significant community transmission of measles,” she says. “What we had was a cluster in a number of schools where there were some unimmunized children, but there was also close quarters in schools and we don’t tend to get ongoing transmission, even after measles is introduced.”

She says that’s because most British Columbians have already been vaccinated and many who haven’t are contacting their doctors to get immunized.

Two new cases identified over the weekend involved people returning from trips overseas where they were exposed.

Thirteen cases have been recorded this year with nine linked to a couple of French-language schools in Vancouver.

It’s believed an unvaccinated child was exposed to measles during a trip to Vietnam.

Gustafson says people who don’t believe they’re adequately immunized should get vaccinated, but there’s no need to rush.

“There isn’t necessarily a need to get the vaccine today,” she says. “It’s great that you’re thinking about it today. If you are concerned that you may not have had measles, then it is safe to receive the vaccine. The people for whom it’s most urgent would be people who are completely unimmunized and unprotected against it.”

She tells NEWS 1130 there’s no shortage of vaccine, but demand may now be high.

“People might go to a pharmacy that isn’t stocking as much as they are expecting because they don’t normally have this kind of demand,” she says. “So what we have been doing is we’ve been connecting with our pharmacists, with our clinics and we have been putting on our website, the clinics and pharmacies where we have been able to confirm that there’s sufficient amount of vaccine and there’s somebody to administer it.”

Meanwhile, parents at Vancouver’s David Lam park say they’re not changing their daily routines because of this outbreak.

We canvassed parents to see if they’re doing anything differently, or avoiding crowded places.

“Not really. We still go to public school and we’ve gone to the aquarium,” one said. “We’ve even booked, like, airfare for places and airplanes are the worst for getting germs.”

“We are not really big into going to the aquarium and we usually go to Grouse Mountain. We are not concerned,” said another.

“I only feel concerned if I’m in a really busy place or in a crowded area,” said another. “We don’t really have time to get out and about, but I don’t feel so bad about the parks, especially if you’re going there very early in the morning. I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about it that far, to be honest.”

One mom, who hasn’t received her second booster shot yet, says she hopes others have sympathy for people like her who haven’t had a chance yet to get fully vaccinated.

Another mom told us her 14-month-old daughter’s already received her second booster shot.

“So I decided to just go ahead and get it, instead of waiting until she’s six,” she said.

Most parents say they don’t want to live in fear, so they have faith health officials will let everyone know when this outbreak has been fully contained.

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