Canada has lost its measles elimination status, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Monday, after failing to contain the virus outbreak for 12 straight months.
Because Canada is no longer considered measles-free, the Americas region as a whole has lost elimination status, although other countries are individually still considered to have eradicated the disease.
However, the US also risks losing its status if it does not stop the ongoing outbreak by January. Related cases have now been reported in Utah, Arizona and South Carolina.
The outbreak in Canada began last October, which health officials blamed on fewer people being vaccinated against measles.
At a news conference Monday, Pahoe officials called on the Canadian government and public to ramp up vaccinations, noting that 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated to stop the spread of measles.
“This loss represents a setback, but it is also reversible,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, the health organization's director.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement that it is working with Paho and regional health authorities to increase vaccination rates and improve data sharing.
Until Monday, Canada had been declared measles-free for three decades. It could regain its elimination status if it can contain the measles strain associated with the current outbreak for at least 12 months.
In 2025, there were more than 5,000 cases of measles reported across the country, most of them in the provinces of Ontario and Alberta. That's three times more than the 1,681 cases reported in the U.S., despite Canada's much smaller population.
Canadian health officials say the bulk of the outbreak has occurred in “under-vaccinated communities.”
The vaccination rate in Alberta, one of the provinces hit hard by the outbreak, is below the 95% threshold, according to the province.
In one region, the South Zone, which includes the province's largest city, Calgary, only 68% of children under two years of age had been vaccinated against measles as of 2024.
The MMR vaccine is the most effective way to fight a dangerous virus that can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling and death. The shots are 97% effective and also provide immunity against mumps and rubella.
Canadian immunologist Dawn Bowdish told the BBC there are many reasons for the low vaccination rate, including a lack of access to general practitioners, the lack of a national vaccination registry that Canadians can use to check their vaccination status, and the spread of misinformation.
She also noted a lack of public health outreach to communities that were hesitant or mistrustful of vaccines.
“It highlights how many of our systems have broken to get us to this point,” said Professor Bowdish of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
“I hope this is a wake-up call to policymakers and that the national shame will be enough for us to fix some of these systemic problems,” she added.
America is the first and only region in the world to be declared measles-free since 2016. This status was then briefly lifted following outbreaks in Venezuela and Brazil. Both countries regained elimination status in 2024, thanks in part to coordinated vaccination efforts that have vaccinated millions of people.
But since then, measles has spread again, now in North America.
Along with Canada and the United States, Mexico has also seen a surge in cases and is now among the top 10 countries with the largest outbreaks, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
