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Ontario’s measles outbreak through the eyes of front-line workers
Health-care workers battling measles in southern Ontario say they think about the outbreak from the moment they wake until the moment they sleep.
They say treating and tamping down the surge of a disease most have never seen in their lifetime is constant.
Some have even been infected by patients who unwittingly spread the highly infectious illness while seeking help for early but general symptoms — fevers and coughs are common before the telltale rash appears days later.
Measles has spread to more than 3,000 people in Canada this year. More than 2,000 of those infected are in Ontario.
Here’s a look at caregivers on the front lines of an outbreak that has particularly struck a region south and east of London.
“THE UNLUCKY ONES”
Carly Simpson considers herself one of the “unlucky ones.”
Five days after developing a sore throat, body aches and fever, the nurse practitioner gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, stunned to see red splotches all over her body.
“Oh my gosh this is measles,” Simpson gasped.
She said measles never crossed her mind when she first fell ill mid-March, suspecting a more likely cause was her autoimmune disease, ankylosing spondylitis, which leads to chronic pain and inflammation.
After all, the vast majority of cases had been among the unvaccinated and Simpson said she had been inoculated three times — including a booster in 2015 after a test revealed her previous two shots didn’t lend full immunity.
Simpson said she had been assured at the beginning of the outbreak that three shots would be enough to protect her. She still got sick and was essentially bedridden for days, only mustering enough energy to walk to the bathroom. But she said the rash only lasted a day and never spread to her husband or kids.
“I had a mild case because I’ve been vaccinated,” said Simpson, among five per cent of the outbreak’s cases to involve vaccinated people.
She suspected she was infected by a patient who came to her clinic with virus symptoms a couple of weeks earlier.
Early symptoms can seem like other illnesses until the rash appears, leaving health-care workers who examine them vulnerable to exposure.
“Is this just a common cold? Is it just some viral infection?” she said of the questions that dog caregivers.
Shawn Cowley was unlucky, too. He noticed white spots inside his cheeks in late April, and then a red blotchy rash on his forehead that migrated down his face, and onto his shoulders and arms.
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“Fortunately for me, because I was fully vaccinated I didn’t get the full brunt of measles,” he said, explaining that the rash otherwise would have covered his whole body. Still, it took about a week for his body to recover from the exhaustion.
Cowley is a key player in measles containment as head of emergency management and preparedness at the local health unit, Southwestern Public Health. His case was traced to his son’s hockey tournament.
He eventually told his colleagues that he contracted measles but noted there is “a stigma” associated with the illness.
Cowley also felt guilty for going to the grocery store and filling up on gas before he was symptomatic, potentially spreading it to others.
“When you find out you do potentially have measles, and the number of people I’ve exposed, understanding how virulent measles is, that’s a really hard thing to deal with personally because you put other people at risk.”
“SLOW BURN”
Dr. Erica Van Daalen calls the outbreak a “slow burn” but one that has required close collaboration among local hospitals to safely treat and isolate measles patients.
The chief of staff at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital said she might see one to three patients in the emergency department on an average day, and often they are children.
As of late May, three infected pregnant women had delivered babies and 15 kids had been admitted. Those include young patients transferred from hospitals in Woodstock and Tillsonburg, which don’t have pediatric units.
“It’s a lot of one-on-one bedside nursing,” Van Daalen said in an interview earlier this spring. “When the days are busy, it wears on the nurses.”
Less than seven per cent of Ontario’s cases have ended up in hospital. But the logistics of safely admitting a measles patient is like expert-level Tetris.
Masked patients are ushered through back doors to negative pressure rooms that keep contaminated air from escaping into other areas of the hospital and infecting more people. The room is sealed and has a system that filters and exchanges the air.
Exposure risks are avoided as much as possible, even trips to the bathroom, said Sangavi Thangeswaran, a registered nurse and an infection control practitioner at both Alexandra Hospital Ingersoll and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital.
“We ask the patient to stay in there. If they need anything like using the washroom, we try to give them commodes or urinals, just to lessen the exposures,” Thangeswaran said.
There are five negative pressure rooms at Woodstock Hospital. When they’re full, patients are assessed in the ambulance garage, said David Lambie, a charge nurse in Woodstock’s emergency department.
It is an extra layer of logistics to navigate, said Lambie, whose hospital has cared for 108 measles patients since January, 55 of them kids.
Once a patient is well enough for discharge, their negative pressure room is left empty for half-an-hour while contaminated air is expunged. Then it’s deep cleaned for the next patient, said Thangeswaran.
She said each of her Oxford County hospitals initially had just one negative pressure room in each emergency department but as cases swelled they created three more.
As of June 12, her team had cared for 14 measles patients in Ingersoll and 64 in Tillsonburg.
“INHERENT CHALLENGE”
Van Daalen, of the hospital in St. Thomas, said deciding whether to discharge a kid sick with measles sometimes keeps her up at night.
“You hesitate to send them home because you’re not quite sure how they’re going to land,” she said.
“There are some later-term consequences for kids who have measles. It’s a very rare complication, but we’ll have to keep our surveillance up.”
Dr. Ninh Tran said he felt like he was approaching burnout in late February.
Ontario’s weekly case count had nearly doubled to 177 over a two-week period ending Feb. 27, with almost half of the overall cases located in his southwestern public health unit.
Pressure was high to trace cases, halt community spread and stop infections. Measles was on his mind every moment of the day and night.
“You could sense a bit of tension and anxiety in all this discussion,” Tran recalled in late May.
“It’s always like a temporary feeling of doubt, fear, anxiety when we see numbers go up and there’s just a lot of things coming right at you,” Tran said of the outbreak’s early days.
“And then you have to step back and say, ‘OK, it’s not going to be helpful if I get stressed because I need to — and other leaders have to — figure out a way to move forward.”
The spread of measles has ebbed and flowed, but Tran noted a steady decline of new cases mid-June.
“While it’s still early to confirm a persistent pattern, the consistency of the decrease does suggest a potential shift in the trajectory of the outbreak,” said Tran.
“We are cautiously encouraged.”
Doctors and health-care experts are warning Canadians to not only look after themselves but also check on others who could be vulnerable as large parts of central Canada face a sweltering heat wave.
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell says a large heat ridge or dome will build over the Ohio Valley in the U.S. and expand into southeastern Canada by the end of the weekend.
Temperatures are expected to reach the low to mid-30s C and the humidex could make that feel much higher, with humidex readings potentially into the mid-40s.
When heat hits those levels, the body has to work harder to keep itself cool.
“The hypothalamus acts as the thermostat and sends signals to the heart to start beating faster, sends signals to our body to breathe a little faster and that helps the blood flow to the extremities so that we can dissipate heat through radiant heat loss,” said Dr. Samantha Green, a family physician at Unity Health Toronto with expertise in climate change and health.
“It also sends signals so that we can cool down through evaporative cooling through sweating.”
What does extreme heat do to your body?
Prolonged exposure to heat can impact the human body in a variety of ways.
One of the most common is heat exhaustion, which can lead to heat stroke.
Heat exhaustion is characterized by headache, dizziness, extreme thirst, heavy sweating, muscle cramps and nausea and vomiting, according to Health Canada, and people are advised to immediately move to a cool place and drink water if experiencing these symptoms.
If left untreated, that exhaustion can become heat stroke, which is defined by Johns Hopkins Medicine as the body being overwhelmed by excessive heat.
Those suffering from heat stroke often have an internal temperature of 40 C or higher, warm, dry skin, confusion and nausea, and it can lead to worse conditions, including seizures, coma and even death.
While people will keep an eye on the temperature, studies show that people should also be aware of the “wet bulb” temperature — when both humidity and air temperatures are high, it can be harder to shed heat and keep yourself cool.
A 2010 study found that a wet-bulb temperature of 35 C that lasts longer than six hours could cause serious health impacts or even death.
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A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 2022 found that at 100 per cent humidity, the threshold could be as low as 31 C, while at 38 C, just 60 per cent humidity could be too much for the body.
If you are suffering from heat stroke or you notice someone with similar symptoms, move to a cool place to rest and call 911, as it is a life-threatening medical emergency.
“If you don’t feel well from the heat, seek medical attention or call 911. Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” said Caroline Metz, managing director of climate resilience and health at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo.
Vulnerable populations, such as youth and older adults or those with chronic conditions, may find it more difficult to beat the heat.
Nemours Children’s Health in the U.S. notes that children’s bodies are still developing and may sweat at a lower rate than adults and start sweating at a higher temperature, putting them more at risk of heat-related illness.
Older adults face higher risks as they may have trouble accessing cool spaces due to mobility or transportation challenges, and those living alone may be more vulnerable as a result, according to B.C. Interior Health.
Older adults, as well as other Canadians, may also have chronic underlying health conditions or be taking medication that could interfere with the body’s ability to stay cool.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that those with these conditions may be less likely to respond to changes in temperature, and that those with heart disease, mental illness and obesity have a higher risk of heat-related illness.
“It’s also why people with chronic health conditions are more at risk of developing heat exhaustion, heat stroke, where the body’s natural cooling mechanisms break down and the core body temperature exceeds 40 degrees,” Green said.
“That’s where we end up with massive inflammation and failure of organs in the body.”
People taking chronic medications can also be affected. Green said beta blockers, for example, prevent the heart from beating faster in response to heat and keep the body from naturally being able to cool down.
It’s not just health conditions or age that can pose vulnerabilities, however.
“Anybody who’s working outside or people experiencing homelessness, they’re more exposed to heat and that’s a group or a population that’s more at risk,” Metz said.
How to protect yourself and others
Metz notes that during heat waves, it’s important for people to watch out for others and check in on neighbours because those living alone or socially isolated can also be vulnerable to heat.
A B.C. coroner’s report following the 2023 heat dome noted that 98 per cent of the 619 deaths identified as being related to heat occurred indoors, with 56 per cent of those who died living alone.
“Social cohesion or social connectedness has been shown to be a very important factor for resilience and for health during heat waves,” Metz said.
“In fact, in some cultures where there are multi-generational families living together, it’s just very natural for people to care about others … so they don’t often experience the same kind of situation that we might have here in North America, where we have one generation living in a household.
“The ability to reach out, call someone, or stop by has been shown to greatly support health and well-being for people who are isolated.”
She added that older adults and those living alone should reach out to other people to let them know they’re on their own and are open to having someone check on them during periods of extreme weather.
As a heat wave enters Ontario later this weekend, Metz said people should stay in the coolest part of their home if possible or go to a community cooling centre, wear lighter-coloured clothing if you have to go out, keep your doors and windows closed during the hottest parts of the day, and turn off items that may produce extra heat in your home.
“If you need to be out, you want to do that during the parts of the day that are the coolest,” she suggested, noting this means early mornings and late evenings.
Police in an Ontario town have arrested one man and are searching for more suspects after a home invasion where a shot was fired, but no one was injured.
On Thursday around 4 a.m., three suspects forced their way through the back door of a home on Brookfield Crescent in Oakville, police said.
Halton Regional Police, who responded to the reported home invasion, said one of the suspects had a handgun and several residents were home at the time.
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More than one of the people inside the house heard the sound of breaking glass, according to police, and confronted the suspects.
Police said one of the suspects fled to the basement, where they were later arrested by the officers who responded to the call. The other suspects fled, and one allegedly fired a shot.
“Thankfully no physical injuries were sustained by household residents,” police said in a news release. “No property was taken.”
Police believe the home invasion was motivated by auto theft.
A 20-year-old man from North York has been charged with robbery with a firearm and disguise with intent.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
The mother who allegedly abandoned her three-year-old daughter in rural Ontario for four days is scheduled to have a bail hearing early next month.
Lawyers in Quebec court set hearing dates of July 3 and July 4 for the 34-year-old Montreal woman who faces one count of unlawful abandonment of a child.
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The judge at the courthouse in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., west of Montreal, authorized a publication ban on the name of the woman to protect the identity of the child.
Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud also signed off on an order preventing the accused from contacting the three-year-old or the girl’s father.
The girl was allegedly abandoned near Casselman, Ont., on Sunday afternoon and was spotted four days later by an Ontario Provincial Police drone along Highway 417 about 50 kilometres west of the Quebec boundary.
The mother, who will remain detained until the bail hearing, reported her daughter missing on Sunday at a business in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., west of Montreal.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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