Some doctors in Alberta have criticized officials for not declaring a health emergency in the western province where measles infections are surging.
Measles cases in Canada have far surpassed those in the United States as health officials in Alberta, a western province that has become a hot spot for the outbreak, have urged the provincial leader to declare a public health emergency to stave off infections.
Canada’s public health agency has recorded about 4,200 measles cases this year, more than three times as many as the 1,300 cases recorded in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The C.D.C. has also ranked Canada among the top 10 countries with the highest number of measles cases. It is the only Western nation on the list.
Alberta, which has low measles vaccine rates, has recorded about 1,600 cases. The largely conservative province has a deep and vocal level of skepticism about the public health system and vaccines, with many people mirroring some of the arguments made in the United States by the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Measles is an airborne virus and one of the world’s most infectious diseases, causing flulike symptoms and a rash. Severe cases can lead to hearing loss, pneumonia or swelling in the brain. Three people have died in the United States, while in Canada there has been one death, a premature baby who had contracted the virus in the womb.
The spread of measles has slowed in Ontario, the province with the largest number of cases. But health professionals say the opposite is true in Alberta, and many are criticizing the provincial government’s public health response.
“Our performance is so bad that we have more cases in a population of five million than the United States has in a population of 340 million,” said Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health in Alberta.