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The disease was once considered eliminated in Canada, but not any more — there have been more than 5,000 cases in the last 12 months as vaccination rates have fallen.
Nov. 10, 2025Updated 3:59 p.m. ET
Canada has officially lost its status as having eliminated measles, the highly infectious virus that was considered wiped out in the country as of 1998, the federal health agency announced on Monday.
While there have been some limited outbreaks in recent decades, the disease made a resurgence in October 2024. It took hold in several provinces and spread for more than 12 consecutive months, the threshold set by the World Health Organization for a country to lose its elimination status.
Canada has logged more than 5,000 measles cases in the last year, with most of them reported in two provinces: Ontario, the most populous, with about 2,400 cases, and Alberta, with nearly 2,000 cases.
How did Canada get here?
A combination of falling vaccination rates and a collision between politics and public health policy in the post-pandemic era have contributed to Canada’s outbreak.
Across Canada, 79 percent of 7-year-olds were fully vaccinated against measles as of 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, down from 83 percent in 2019. That’s far lower than the 95 percent threshold that experts say is needed to stop the virus from spreading.
The highest concentration of cases in Canada has occurred in Alberta, a western province that has emphasized personal freedoms to reject vaccination.
