Alert issued after measles case confirmed in Edmonton

A public alert has been issued after an infectious person with a confirmed case of measles was reported to have been in three public places in Edmonton last week.

"We're on the extreme side of erring on caution when it comes to measles given how contagious we know it is," said Dr. Jasmine Hasselback, medical officer of health for the Edmonton zone.

The person was at Northgate Mall on May 8 and 9, at the Misericordia Hospital on May 9,10, 11 and 12, and at Real Canadian Superstore on Stony Plain Road on May 11, Alberta Health Services said in a news release.

AHS do not believe the person was in Canada when they were exposed to measles.

"We're very confident when we look at that timeline, that the period of exposure that resulted in disease aligns well with when they were outside of the country," Hasselback said.

People who were at the locations, and who were born after 1970 and have not already had measles or have not received two doses of measles vaccine, may be at risk for developing measles, AHS said.

Here are the locations and times where the exposures occurred:

May 8, 2018
Exposure location: Northgate Mall (9499 137th Ave.)
Exposure time period: 8:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.

May 9, 2018
Location: Northgate Mall 
Time period: 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Emergency Department (16940 87th Ave.)
Time period: 6:48 p.m. – 11:59 p.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Diagnostic Imaging
Time period: 11:55 p.m. – 11:59 p.m.

May 10, 2018
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Emergency Department
Time period: 12 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Diagnostic Imaging
Time period: 12 a.m. – 2:25 a.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Diagnostic Imaging
Time period: 10:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital: Endoscopy, Surgical Day Ward and Day Surgery (including the waiting room) 
Time period: 2:47 p.m. – 7:58 p.m.

May 11, 2018
Location: Real Canadian Superstore (17303 Stony Plain Rd)
Time period: 4:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Emergency Department
Time period: 9:50 p.m. - 11:59 p.m.

May 12, 2018
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Emergency Department
Time period: 12 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Location: The Misericordia Community Hospital Diagnostic Imaging
Time period: 3:21 a.m. – 5:51 a.m.

Symptoms of measles can appear up to 21 days after exposure.The symptoms include a fever of 38.3 C or higher and a cough, runny nose and/or red eyes, and a red blotchy rash that appears three to seven days after the fever starts.

Pregnant women or people with infants under one year of age who were at the above locations at those times should contact Health Link at 811 for assessment, AHS said.

For further information on routine childhood immunization visit www.immunizealberta.ca