ATHABASCA — Alberta Health Services is requiring the Boyle Healthcare Centre pre-emptively prepare for a measles outbreak in advance of the hospital returning to full service, according to a report from a village of Boyle councillor.
During the July 23 council meeting, Boyle councillor Shelby Kiteley said the hospital was preparing to turn the teleconference room into a measles room in accordance with the spread of the heavily infectious disease across the northern sections of Alberta.
“You know how they had the tarps up during COVID to make isolation rooms? Well, now they’re really worried about measles,” said Coun. Shelby Kiteley. She noted the teleconference room, which ventilates directly to the outside, will be used as a measles room when the facility does reopen.
“They’re pretty much mandating it because we have a low vaccination (rate) in the area.”
The measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine is typically administered in childhood through a two dose process, with the first dose typically given to a patient when they’re 12 to 15 months old. Initially, the vaccine has a 85 to 95 per cent efficacy rate, but it rises to nearly 100 per cent once the second shot is received, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
According to a government of Alberta database that tracks childhood immunization rates, as of 2024 80 per cent of Albertans have their first dose of the vaccine by the time they’re two. In Athabasca County, only 73 per cent of children are vaccinated. In Westlock County that number rises to 77 per cent, and in the County of Barrhead only 62 per cent of kids have received their first dose of the vaccine.
Those numbers are done since 2015, the first year that information is available. A decade ago, 87 per cent of children across the province had received their first dose before they turned two, including 84 per cent of Athabasca County natives, 88 per cent of Westlock County, and 91 per cent of children in the County of Barrhead.
Despite the below average rates, Athabasca County is still ahead of the average for the North Zone as a whole, which sits at 69.5 per cent, down from 81 in 2015.
Despite the sharp decrease in vaccination rates, the government of Alberta still recommends newborns get both MMR shots before they turn two. A vaccine schedule on the government of Canada’s website shows that a newborn should get the first dose when they’re 12 months old, and the second six months later, alongside the other regular childhood shots.
The province of Alberta reported 1,603 measles cases in 2025 as of July 29, with 503 in the North Zone. Of those 1,603, 450 occurred in children below the age of five, while 705 cases were in children between the ages of five and 17.
–with files from Lexi Freehill
