BURSTProvincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there have been 52 people who reported being sick with measles this year.
Thirty of those – “mostly children who have not been vaccinated” – ended up sick enough that they needed to be hospitalized for a time, Henry said during a press conference in Vancouver Thursday (Aug. 27).
“The good news is that everybody has recovered now, but we are still at risk, and we are seeing importations of measles and spread in communities across B.C.”
Since the beginning of 2025, there have been 489 reported cases of measles in B.C., she said.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control latest publicly available data, which is up to Aug. 13, shows that the majority of those cases have been in the Northern Health region.
From Jan. 1, 2025 to Aug. 12, 2026, there have been 364 cases in the health authority. Five of those were in the northwest health service delivery area, 26 were in the northern interior and 333 were in the northeast corner of province.
That’s compared to 59 cases in Fraser Health, 19 in Interior, 12 in Vancouver Coastal and five on the Island.
While there haven’t been deaths reported in B.C., Henry noted there have been at least five deaths in the U.S. since last year. She said it “reminds us just how severe this disease can be.”
“Measles, we know, is one of those illnesses that vaccines can safely and effectively prevent, and vaccines have dramatically reduced the number of diseases that used to be really common. We know that from polio to pertussis and chickenpox.”
This press conference was part of the provincial government’s annual reminder about vaccinations ahead of the upcoming school year.
Henry said she didn’t want children to get sick and miss out on those in-class learning and activities like sports and music and the important social time that goes with being back with their friends.
She said the province has an immunization schedule that outlines which vaccines children receive at which age, adding it’s designed so that they receive the best protection in the most timely way for different illnesses at the right time.
One of those is the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, which many children are due for their second dose at six years old. Another is the HPV (human papillomavirus) offered in Grade 6, and then a booster for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, and also for meningitis in Grade 9.
Henry said she knows there is a lot of information online about vaccine “and it can be very difficult to sort through it all.” She added that false or misleading information about vaccines is very common online.
She encouraged people to get their information from reputable sources, such as your child’s health-care provider, a pharmacist or local public health units.
She was joined by new provincial Health Minister Ravi Kahlon, who said there are “too many bad actors on social media that just do whatever they do for clicks and spread lies.”
“We know that the U.S. administration is also spreading misinformation that helps spread the deadly virus, like measles. So, due to these falsehoods, childhood vaccinations are decreasing, and the rates of measles are unfortunately increasing.”
There have been more than 2,700 measles cases reported in the U.S. – some of the highest rates seen since 1991, according to the Center for Disease Control.