ICYMI: Understanding the measles outbreak and what’s truly at stake
Episode description
We are revisiting this episode of The Big Story from March, as we learned this week, an infant died this week in Southwestern Ontario, who was born premature and infected with measles.
In a statement, Dr. Kieran Moore said the infant contracted the virus before birth from their mother, who had not received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
However it's important added that while measles may have been a contributing factor in both the premature birth and death, the infant also faced “other serious medical complications unrelated to the virus.”
Officials are still calling it a "preventable crisis".
The highly contagious viral infection was considered eliminated in 1998 in Canada and in 2000 in the U.S., but a number of factors have contributed to its recent resurgence.
Host Melanie Ng speaks with Sabina Vohra-Miller, @unambiguousscience, a Doctor of Public Health candidate and expert in clinical pharmacology and toxicology, about this issue.
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