EDMONTON – Health officials are warning passengers and crew of an Air Canada flight, along with anyone who was at the Edmonton International Airport during a certain window of time, that they may have been exposed to measles.
The warning comes as Alberta Health Services confirmed another case of the disease in the Edmonton Zone on Saturday. The infected individual has been determined to be a child who was travelling to Edmonton via Vancouver from the Philippines earlier this month.
The fact that the child passed through an airport may complicate matters.
“It’s a busy place, and so a lot of people could potentially be exposed,” said Dr. Marcia Johnson, Medical Officer of Health for the Edmonton Zone.
The people who are at risk include:
- Passengers and crew on Air Canada Flight #AC248, which departed from Vancouver the evening of April 9.
- Those who were at the Edmonton International Airport April 9 between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. April 10.
“In some ways, it’s kind of good that it was so late at night and early in the morning,” Johnson said.
She added that she didn’t know how many passengers were on the Vancouver-to-Edmonton flight. Efforts may be made to obtain a passenger list and contact those people directly, she said, but she noted such efforts could take time and health officials wanted to issue their warning as quickly as possible.
Measles is extremely contagious and spreads through the air, according to health officials.
“You just have to be walking through the air space where a person of measles has walked through within two hours and you can be exposed to measles,” Johnson explained.
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Individuals without prior exposure to the disease, especially those who haven’t received the measles vaccine, have a higher risk of contracting it.
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These individuals are being told to monitor themselves for symptoms of measles, which include:
- a fever of 38.3° C or higher,
- a cough, runny nose and/or red eyes,
- a red blotchy rash that appears three to seven days after fever starts, beginning behind the ears and on the face and spreading down to the torso and then to the arms and legs.
Anyone who experiences these symptoms is advised to stay home and call Health Link Alberta (1.866.408.5465) before visiting any health care facility or provider.
Typically, the disease will develop about 10 days after exposure, but it can take up to three weeks for symptoms to show up. If you have been infected, you will be highly contagious before the symptoms even appear.
British Columbia is currently in the grips of a large outbreak, with at least 375 cases so far.
This is the second case in the Edmonton Zone in the past month, and the 15th confirmed case this year in Alberta, where immunization rates have fallen seven per cent in the last seven years.
In Manitoba, health officials confirmed two new cases of the disease on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases there to seven.
In the latest Edmonton case, the child — whose age is not being released — did not require hospitalization and is now recovering at home.
Most people who catch it survive, but between one and three cases per 1,000 can be fatal.
“From a public health perspective we feel kinda sad because this is preventable,” said Johnson. “Once it has occurred, we just work as hard as we can to control the spread.”
With files Fletcher Kent, Global News and The Canadian Press
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