TORONTO - The Public Health Agency is warning Canadians planning to travel abroad to protect themselves against measles.
The warning comes at a time when outbreaks of the highly contagious disease are happening in a number of spots around the globe. People who have had measles are considered immune to the virus, but people who have not need two shots to be protected.
People who grew up in Canada in the 1970s, '80s and first half of the '90s probably had only one shot of measles vaccine, because a two-shot regime wasn't introduced until the latter half of the '90s.
The agency said people who weren't born and raised in Canada may also be under-immunized.
People born before 1970 can consider themselves protected against the virus, because they probably had measles when they were children. Now, on average, Canada sees about seven cases a year.
Before the vaccine was introduced, it is estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 Canadian children contracted measles each year.
A number of public health organizations have warned about measles outbreaks of late. For instance, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently issued a warning to Americans planning to travel to Israel for Passover, because Israel is experiencing an outbreak.
But Dr. Arlene King, director general of the centre for immunization and respiratory infectious diseases, says Canada is issuing a general travel warning, because measles can be contracted in many places.
"Essentially measles is endemic in most parts of the world except in the Americas," King said.
Symptoms of measles include fever, cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis and rash. Complications include diarrhea, ear infection, pneumonia, encephalitis - inflammation of the brain -- and death.
Every year nearly a million children die of complications of measles worldwide. "This is a serious disease," King said.
