Canada achieved measles elimination status in 1998. Now, it could lose it [Video]

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.

As Canada’s measles outbreak continues to grow, the country is at risk of losing its measles elimination status — a bar set by the World Health Organization. 

“The risk is substantial,” said Dr. Sarah Wilson, a public health physician with Public Health Ontario who has been tracking the measles outbreak in that province. 

Ontario is now reporting more measles cases each week than it once saw over an entire decade, Wilson said. “It is a very different situation than what we experienced in the last decade since measles elimination was achieved,” she said.

Measles elimination is reached when a virus is no longer endemic — circulating regularly — in a certain country or region. It’s different …