Grand Erie Public Health appoints new acting officer of health amidst measles outbreak

Aura Carreño Rosas · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 21, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

As the portion faces a measles outbreak, Dr. Adelle Chang On has stepped successful arsenic the Grand Erie Public Health's (GEPH) caller acting aesculapian serviceman of health.

The wellness unit, which encompasses the counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk arsenic good arsenic the metropolis of Brantford, is reporting 112 cases of measles arsenic of Wednesday.

Chang On said she expects the numbers to alteration connected an "ongoing basis."

GEPH is the wellness portion with the second-largest fig of cases successful Ontario, surpassed lone by Southwestern Public Health with 223 cases arsenic of Thursday.

Public Health Ontario has reported 470 measles cases since an outbreak began successful October. That's an summation of 120 cases since March 14.

Chang On stepped into the relation arsenic a impermanent assignment, pursuing the decease of the erstwhile GEPH acting aesculapian serviceman of health, Dr. Malcolm Lock, successful precocious February. 

Lock was the aesculapian serviceman of wellness for the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit (HNHU) for respective years earlier it merged with the Brant County Health Unit to signifier the GEPH precocious past year.

Chang On is also one of the subordinate aesculapian officers of wellness for the Region of Waterloo. She completed specialist grooming successful nationalist wellness and preventive medicine astatine McMaster University, where she is besides a module member. She antecedently worked as a medical serviceman of wellness and physician successful her location state of Trinidad and Tobago, according to a property merchandise from Grand Erie Public Health.

Chang On said stepping into the relation astatine this clip is "certainly precise exciting."

She said the main absorption of her being assigned to the GEPH was the measles outbreak portion helping different sections of the wellness portion enactment afloat.

"I truly invited the accidental to enactment with a squad that has already had a batch of on-the-ground acquisition with [measles]," she told CBC Hamilton connected Thursday. She joined the squad connected Monday.

Anyone not 'protected against measles is astatine risk'

Chang On said measles is highly contagious "and it tin inactive origin superior wellness complications, peculiarly successful our younger children."

She said little terrible complications see predominant diarrhea oregon aerial infections, but much terrible ones could see lung infections oregon pneumonia.

"Even similar swelling of the encephalon oregon corruption of the brain, which would beryllium what we would telephone an encephalitis and can, of course, adjacent pb to death," she said.

Chang On said anyone who is "not protected against measles is astatine risk."

That's wherefore the GEPH's superior relation close present is promoting vaccinations.

"We cognize that vaccination is the astir effectual mode to support against measles," she said. "It's a precise harmless and effectual vaccine."

As to factors that are astatine play successful the outbreak circumstantial to the region, she said vaccination rates dipped successful the pandemic. 

The measles vaccine is adjacent to 100 per cent effectual successful preventing the disease, according to Shelly Bolotin, manager of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases astatine the University of Toronto.

The measles vaccine contains tiny amounts of unrecorded virus, making it 1 of the astir protective shots available, she said.

"It's really a mini corruption successful your body. And truthful it creates thing very, precise akin to what you would spot if you're infected."

Chang On added aboriginal recognition of cases is besides important to forestall further spread.

"The bulk" of their enactment is, erstwhile cases are identified, moving to spot "who are the radical astir them who would beryllium astatine highest hazard of terrible illness and trying to forestall that onward dispersed to the grade that we can," she added.