Grand Erie Public Health grappled with measles outbreak in 2025

[ad_1] Grand Erie Public Health was born on the first day of 2025. A week later, as staff were still setting up their new email accounts, the measles virus appeared in the largely rural community.Published Jan 06, 2026 • Last updated Jan 06, 2026 • 8 minute readSignage in English and Low German asked visitors to Norfolk General Hospital's emergency department to wait outside if they had symptoms of measles. Photo by J.P. Antonacci /Local Journalism Initiative ReporterArticle contentGrand Erie Public Health was born on the first day of 2025, the result of months of merger talks between the health units that had overseen Haldimand-Norfolk and Brantford-Brant.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentA week later, as staff were still setting up their new email accounts, the measles virus appeared in the largely rural community southwest of Hamilton.Article contentRecommended VideosArticle contentThat first case of the highly contagious respiratory disease once considered eradicated in Canada led to many more, with Dr. Malcolm Lock formally declaring a measles outbreak in Grand Erie before the end of January.Lock, who died the following month, had only recently replaced Dr. Rebecca Comley after Brantford-Brant’s former medical officer of health went on leave. The health unit would introduce four different top doctors before the measles outbreak began to wane in July.It was during this time that health officials grappled with an outbreak that eventually infected 300 residents, mostly in Norfolk County, and sent 18 people to hospital.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentAmong the hospitalized were an unspecified number of unvaccinated children, the demographic most affected by the potentially life-threatening disease that is almost completely preventable thanks to a safe and freely available vaccine with a decades-long track record.Low vaccination rates saw Grand Erie account for 12.5 per cent of the 2,376 total measles cases reported in Ontario during the outbreak, which was declared over in October.Grand Erie was second only to neighbouring Southwestern Public Health as the region with Ontario’s largest measles caseload.“I think the teams did a great job of coming together quicker than anticipated and working together, and prioritizing the response at a time that was already very busy for everyone,” Dr. Jason Malenfant, Grand Erie’s current medical officer of health, told The Ontario Chronicle.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentManaging one of Canada’s largest measles outbreaks in decades took technological innovation, hours of community outreach and creative approaches to overcome vaccine hesitancy in at-risk populations. Health officials spoke with The Spectator about how the health unit’s infectious disease experts used new methods to battle an old enemy.The need for speedThe health unit’s emergency preparedness group responded to the measles outbreak by deploying “online systems and tools” put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Filip Pajtondziev, Grand Erie’s manager of infectious disease.“We were able to contact cases right away (and) effectively and efficiently call contacts,” said Pajtondziev, describing how robocalls helped to alert “well over 1,000 residents” of potential measles exposures.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentStaff followed up with each of the 150-plus residents who filled out the health unit’s online self-screening portal. Any resident unable to travel to get tested had a test kit delivered to their home, while the health unit also arranged for mobile immunization or post-exposure prophylactic treatment.“We met people where they’re at and we really tried to remove those barriers,” Pajtondziev said.To spread the word about measles, the health unit paid for ads on social media, issued news releases, convened press briefings and launched an online dashboard with updates on case counts and exposure notifications.Those notifications named businesses, hockey arenas, places of worship, youth clubs, schools, doctor’s offices and more, giving the date and time range when people with measles had visited.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content“I think it was really important to be transparent with those settings and just let them know the importance of the health risks that we’re trying to communicate to the community,” Pajtondziev said of the delicate task of publicly naming private businesses in connection with the outbreak.“We had positive feedback from the community to be able to utilize those (notifications) and call in to complete an exposure form.”Removing barriers to vaccinationThe health unit focused on convincing parents and guardians to get their children immunized, stressing that receiving two shots of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine gives the recipient near-total protection for life.Grand Erie staff delivered more than 750 doses of MMR vaccine at community clinics amid the outbreak, a figure that does not take into account shots given at doctor’s offices and walk-in clinics.Advertisement 7This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content“Certainly we used that as a metric (of success) — our ability to reach communities, speak with them one-on-one, increase vaccination, address head-on any hesitancy or disinformation or misinformation that we’ve been faced with,” Malenfant said.The health unit does not usually offer routine immunizations to the general public outside of school settings, but officials did so amid the outbreak to reach rural residents who do not have a family doctor or lack access to transportation.“And that’s not unique to our region. That’s provincewide and countrywide,” Malenfant said.“Trying to remove those barriers is certainly one of the goals in trying to prevent future outbreaks.”Where religion and public health meetDr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said in March 2025 that the measles outbreak was traced to “an exposure at a large gathering with guests from Mennonite communities in New Brunswick.”Advertisement 8This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentGuests at that October 2024 gathering unwittingly brought the virus to southwestern Ontario, namely the region bordering Norfolk, Oxford and Elgin counties, which has a sizeable conservative Mennonite population.Grand Erie and Southwestern public health officials faced a challenge shared by their counterparts in rural Texas — the epicentre of a simultaneous measles outbreak in the United States — as well as in Mexico and five South American countries where the same measles strain infected members of local Mennonite communities.Experts who study the intersection of religion and public health say some conservative religious communities with a historic mistrust of governments are reluctant to get vaccinated, leaving members more susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.Advertisement 9This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentIn response, the health unit met with faith and community leaders in Norfolk to open a dialogue.“Just meeting people where they’re at and having open conversations and listening to those concerns,” Pajtondziev said. “We look at ways we can support people, whatever the need may be.”The health unit also got creative to educate Mennonite communities about the risks posed by measles, translating signage and handouts into Low German — or Plautdietsch — and co-producing a Plautdietsch-language video to educate residents on treatment options and ways to limit transmission. A screengrab from a measles-related educational video produced by the Norfolk Community Help Centre in Langton and Grand Erie Public Health, with narration in Low German and English subtitles. SCREENGRABReading, writing and rolling up sleevesKnowing children are most at risk of serious complications from measles, Pajtondziev said the health unit prioritized getting educational material disseminated through schools and child-care centres, arranging for on-site vaccination clinics when needed.Advertisement 10This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentChurches and private religious schools in Norfolk run by Old Colony or Old Order Mennonites, as well as other Anabaptist sects, made repeat appearances on the measles exposure list.By law, students in all Ontario schools — including private religious schools — must be immunized against childhood diseases such as measles unless granted a medical or philosophical exemption.The health unit uses an online records system to get timely lists of which students are immunized to help determine who needs to be kept home after a measles exposure in a classroom or on a bus.The information is available for public schools and “at least some private schools,” Malenfant said.But Lock, the former medical officer of health, told reporters some private school administrators are “reluctant” to release students’ names and vaccination status due to privacy concerns.Advertisement 11This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentThe health unit can suspend students whose parents do not submit proof of vaccination as required by provincial law. This past March, 461 Grand Erie students were ordered out of class due to incomplete immunization records. Most returned to school within a few weeks.But health officials depend on family doctors to offer eligible vaccines to their young patients “and make sure that those children are on schedule for their routine immunizations,” Malenfant said.Long-term fallout unknownAlong with sending 18 people to hospital and causing hundreds more to seek medical treatment, the Grand Erie outbreak had broader implications.Dr. Ninh Tran, Southwestern’s medical officer of health, told reporters the outbreaks in the neighbouring health units were “directly connected” to measles cases in other regions, including Hamilton, Windsor-Essex and Niagara.Advertisement 12This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content“The transmission is quite complex and doesn’t follow geographical borders,” Pajtondziev added.Grand Erie, which has 0.6 per cent of the country’s population, accounted for 5.8 per cent of Canada’s 5,138 total measles cases.Lock told reporters the health unit’s case count was likely an underestimate, since contact tracing was limited and some residents were reluctant to report symptoms and get tested.Beyond the numbers, the long-term fallout of the outbreak remains to be seen. While most people who catch the measles will recover at home, the virus can destroy the patient’s immune system, leaving them susceptible to all manner of infections for up to five years.‘Really unfortunate milestone’Canada declared the end of the measles outbreak on Oct. 6. Just over a month later, on Nov. 10, Canada lost its measles elimination status due to the same measles strain having circulated for more than a year.Advertisement 13This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content“This is a really unfortunate milestone for Canada,” Malenfant said, calling the loss “a huge wake-up call and a reminder to all of us in public health and health care that we need to remain vigilant.”Canada had officially eliminated measles in 1998 following sustained efforts to reach herd immunity, meaning at least 95 per cent vaccine coverage.The latest survey from the Public Health Agency of Canada, conducted in 2023, estimated 87.4 per cent of Canadian adults had received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, with two doses needed for full protection.The survey found the percentage of two-year-olds to have received at least one dose dropped from around 90 per cent in 2019 to about 82 per cent in 2023.Regaining measles elimination status will involve addressing COVID-inspired vaccine hesitancy and mistrust in public health, Malenfant said.Advertisement 14This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content“Certainly, I’m using (the loss of status) as motivation to regain the public’s trust,” he said.Malenfant called for “a really collaborative response” and “sustained investment” in public health from all levels of government to remove barriers to vaccination and “combat misinformation and disinformation.”“We need to provide credible, scientifically driven information to the general public in a manner that is digestible and trustworthy,” he said.‘Thankful for the team’The measles outbreak was an immediate test for the new health unit, and Malenfant and Pajtondziev said Grand Erie Public Health was not caught off guard.“We’re equipped for unexpected scenarios and emergency response,” said Malenfant, explaining the cost of responding to the outbreak — including overtime pay for staff running evening and weekend vaccine clinics — was absorbed by the health unit’s budget.Advertisement 15This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentThe outbreak could have been worse if not for the health unit’s speedy and “proactive response,” he added.“It could have reached a greater severity, as many other outbreaks have,” Malenfant said. “And so our co-ordinated response is hopefully contributory to that.”During the COVID-19 pandemic, many regular health unit programs were forced to the back burner while staff focused on the emerging threat. This time, business continued as usual.“We were able to plan ahead and make sure none of our other programming was impacted,” Pajtondziev said.“Everyone is quite passionate about what we do. They’re the experts that really help control our outbreak. So I’m very thankful for the team.”J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Ontario Chronicle. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.Article contentShare this article in your social network [ad_2] Source link

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