‘It’s incredibly infectious’: Public health warns as measles circulates in Guelph

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) Public Health continues to grapple with measles after the region was designated a risk area for transmission in Ontario.

“We are now considered one of the most affected areas,” said Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum.

Tenenbaum was on The Mike Farwell Show on Tuesday and said that while WDG exceeds the provincial average for measles vaccine coverage, transmission among the unvaccinated is driving this outbreak.

“It’s incredibly infectious and the consequence means we need to have and maintain really high levels of vaccine coverage in our population, because people who aren’t up-to-date often tend to congregate with each other in pockets.”

Tenenbaum used an example: if you put one person with measles in a room with 100 people who have no protection, 90 out of 100 would likely catch measles.

Usually, Ontario sees 10 to 20 cases of measles over the course of a year. Since the provincial outbreak started in October, there have been more than 1,400 cases reported.

Tenenbaum thinks heightened vaccine hesitancy post-COVID has been part of the problem.

“I think that the way that a lot of the conversation around COVID vaccines unfolded, alongside people’s feelings about various public health restrictions, affected people’s willingness to get vaccinated even in our context now after COVID,” Tenenbaum said. “It was something we dealt with to some extent beforehand, but it has gotten worse, and I will say, the information environment that we all exist in now makes it more challenging to counter that as well.”

WDG Public Health is offering measles vaccines in an expedited timeframe for young children because of the “risk area” status. More information can be found by clicking here.

More measles exposures in Waterloo Region

As of Tuesday afternoon, eight more locations were added to the Region of Waterloo’s list of potential public exposures to measles.

The majority are healthcare settings while two are for businesses: the Walmart at Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener and the McDonald’s on Hespeler Road in Cambridge.

• Sunday, May 4, 2025: Walmart – Fairview Park Mall, 2960 Kingsway Drive, Kitchener, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 25, 2025)
• Tuesday, May 6, 2025: St. Jacobs Midwives, 2-9 Parkside Drive, St. Jacobs, from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 27, 2025)
• Wednesday, May 7, 2025: KWIC Walk-in Clinic, 5 Manitou Drive, Kitchener, from 2:20 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 28, 2025)
• Wednesday, May 7, 2025: KWIC Physiotherapy, 5 Manitou Drive, Kitchener, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 28, 2025)
• Thursday, May 8, 2025: Cambridge Gateway Medical Centre (Clinic and Pharmacy), 102-460 Hespeler Road, Cambridge, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 29, 2025)
• Thursday, May 8, 2025: Hespeler Medical Centre, B12-350 Conestoga Blvd., Cambridge from 2:10 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 29, 2025)
• Thursday, May 8, 2025: McDonald’s, 416 Hespeler Road, Cambridge, from 5:15 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. (Monitor for symptoms until May 29, 2025)
• Thursday, May 8 to Friday, May 9, 2025: Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Emergency Department, 700 Coronation Blvd, Cambridge, from 5:25 p.m. Thursday to 1:25 a.m. Friday (Monitor for symptoms until May 30, 2025)

The full list along with a link to a measles self-assessment tool are posted on the Region of Waterloo’s measles exposures webpage.