Dr. Arlene King is pictured in White Rock, B.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. The Canadian Press
More than six decades ago, Dr. Arlene King remembers being too weak to tie her shoes. Measles had left her exhausted — and soon, her 18-month-old brother caught it too. His fever climbed so high it triggered convulsions.
“It really was not a benign disease,” King recalls. The childhood memory later shaped her life’s work — leading national efforts to prevent measles and safeguard public health.
Back then, measles was everywhere. Before vaccines, nearly every child caught it. When a vaccine finally arrived in 1963, parents lined up in gratitude. Communities came together, and by 1998, Canada celebrated what once seemed impossible — the elimination of measles.
Today, that milestone is slipping away.
A Comeback No One Wanted
For the first time in more than 25 years, Canada is seeing sustained measles transmission. The outbreak began in New Brunswick in October 2024 and spread rapidly across provinces, infecting more than 5,000 people.
Physicians who once helped eliminate measles say they are heartbroken — but also hopeful that history can guide the way back.
Remembering the Past
Between 1924 and 1958, Canada saw an average of 45,000 measles cases every year. Outbreaks hit every few years, closing schools and hospitalizing children. Many suffered serious complications — pneumonia, deafness, brain inflammation, even death.
Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s former chief medical officer of health, remembers growing up in the early 1960s when schools had special programs for children who lost their hearing to measles.
The turning point came with the first vaccine. Cases fell dramatically, from tens of thousands to fewer than 10,000 a year. But by the late 1980s, outbreaks were again on the rise.
In 1989, Quebec saw 10,000 cases in one outbreak alone. Dr. Gaston De Serres began studying why. His research found that some children didn’t develop immunity after the first shot — but a second dose protected them.
That discovery reshaped vaccination policy worldwide.
A National Effort
Despite growing evidence, Canada was slow to adopt a two-dose program. By 1994, when health leaders across the Americas committed to eliminating measles by 2000, Canada was still lagging.
A year later, the country recorded over 2,100 cases — more than half of all infections in the Western Hemisphere. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization urged urgent action: a coordinated two-dose program and a national catch-up campaign.
By 1996, provinces rolled out school-based mass immunizations. Dr. Monika Naus, then leading Ontario’s elimination program, remembers vaccinating four million students in just six weeks.
“It was my proudest achievement,” she said. “You could see the difference almost immediately.”
That united effort paid off. Two years later, Canada officially eliminated measles.
Holding on to Hope
Today, experts like Talbot fear the country has lost the collective focus that once defined that success. Still, he believes the solution lies in rebuilding trust, science-based policy, and political will.
“If we treat this as a wake-up call,” he said, “we can protect the next generation — and reclaim what we once achieved.”
