Infants are most susceptible to measles as they generally aren't vaccinated before age one

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — B.C. Centre for Disease Control is issuing a warning to people in B.C. in the wake of a measles outbreak in Washington State and Oregon: make sure you have updated measles vaccines before heading to that area south of the border.

A state of emergency was declared in Washington’s Clark County and at least one case has also been confirmed in Oregon, and it’s not out of the question that the outbreak could travel north toward the Lower Mainland.

Monika Naus, a medical director with BCCDC is warning the public that measles outbreaks still happen on the continent.

“I think that people in British Columbia just need to be reminded that at any given time, there could be measles activity in North America in communities they may be visiting,” she says. “You don’t need to leave North America to be exposed to measles.”

Infants are more likely to be susceptible to the disease, and she says children whose parents have intentionally not vaccinated them are at the highest risk.

“Routinely we don’t vaccinate children prior to the age of one, so infants are likely to be susceptible, especially after about four to six months of age,” she says. “If its an infant travelling to an area where there’s no measles activity, they can be vaccinated as young as six months of age. Individuals at older ages, if they know they’ve never been vaccinated and never had measles, then obviously they are at risk.”

She says there is a risk of people going to the area and bringing it back to the Lower Mainland. Clark County has information about areas where measles exposures have happened on their website.

Clark County is an area American Health authorities call an “anti-vaccination hot spot.” Naus says similar under-vaccinated areas exist in our province, with even possibly as much as five per cent of young children in B.C. who are not vaccinated.

“We’ve got under-vaccinated communities in British Columbia as well, in all of our regions there are pockets of people who are under-vaccinated,” she says.

She adds that while there is currently no travel advisory for Washington State, anyone heading to the area should review their immunization status to make sure they’re protected.