Despite Newfoundland and Labrador's high measles vaccination rate, Eastern Health's medical officer of health is concerned about cases in other parts of the country.

"Unfortunately, these outbreaks are because of lower-than-ideal vaccination rates," said Dr. Janice Fitzgerald.

British Columbia is currently battling an outbreak of the disease, and earlier this week Alberta issued a health alert for a handful of locations around the Edmonton airport after an infectious passenger spent 19 hours in the area en route from Vancouver to Inuvik.

"Anyone who's not been vaccinated, obviously that's a concern, because measles is a highly infectious disease, and in people who are not vaccinated it can spread quite easily," said Fitzgerald.

The vaccination rate for measles in Newfoundland and Labrador is around 95 per cent, and there have been only two confirmed cases in the last 20 years — both in 2017, and both related to travel.

But outside of the province, a rising number of cases worldwide can be linked to anti-vaxxers, and the World Health Organization now lists "vaccine hesitancy" among its Top 10 threats to global health in 2019.

Fitzgerald says the anti-vaxx sentiment doesn't seem to be popular in the province.

"We don't hear of it a lot," she said. "Obviously with our rates up around 95 per cent, we feel that the population agrees with us that vaccination is safe and effective, and we're very thankful for that. So we don't hear it as much as in other provinces in the country, but it's still — there are pockets of people."

Most people in Newfoundland and Labrador born before 1970 have a natural immunity, as measles circulated routinely.

The province now gives two doses of the vaccine to infants, first at 12 months, and then again at 18 months.

But people born between 1970 and the early 1980s likely got only one shot, and Fitzgerald suggests people update their vaccines to make sure they're protected.

"We have great records of vaccinations," she said. "So contacting your local or regional public health office, you should be able to get that information."

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