Young child in Ontario dies of measles

Unvaccinated youth was under the age of five, public health reports

- MEGAN OGILVIE

A young child has died of measles in Ontario, the first measles death in the province in more than a decade, Public Health Ontario reports.

The child was under the age of five and was not vaccinated against the highly infectious virus, the agency’s most recent surveillance report shows.

So far this year, five children aged nine and under in Ontario have been hospitalized with a measles infection, all of whom were unimmunized. One of these five children has recently died of the infection, the report shows.

"It's awful to see something like this," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital.

"It's a stark reminder that there are still vaccine-preventable illnesses that can be devastating, not just in other parts of the world, but also here in Canada." Shelly Bolotin, director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said she's not clear when the last measles death occurred in Canada.