A young child has died of measles in the province, a new surveillance report from Public Health Ontario confirms.
The child, who was under the age of five, was not immunized against the virus, according to the report, which was published on Thursday.
The PHO report also confirms that this is the first measles death in the province in more than a decade.
There have been 22 confirmed cases of measles reported in Ontario in 2024. Of those individuals, 13 were children and nine were adults, the report states. Four of the adults were previously immunized, two were unimmunized, and three had an unknown immunization status. Of the 13 cases reported in children, 12 were not immunized and one had an unknown immunization status. The cases spanned across nine different public health units and the source of transmission in 15 or the 22 cases is believed to be travel, the report notes.
Five cases required hospitalization and all of those cases were among children under the age of nine who were not vaccinated, Public Health Ontario says. The child who died was among those hospitalized.
