How Canada can regain its measles elimination status

TORONTO — Infectious disease experts say Canada’s loss of measles elimination status shows how badly investment is needed in public health, rebuilding vaccine confidence and solving the primary care crisis.

On Monday, the Pan American Health Organization revoked the measles-free status Canada has had since 1998 because an outbreak of the virus across several provinces has lasted for more than a year.

McMaster University immunologist Dawn Bowdish says cuts to public health funding, the lack of a national vaccine registry and a shortage of family doctors — all while misinformation about vaccines is circulating widely — have contributed to the rise of measles.

She says public health workers don’t have the resources they need to do enough vaccination outreach to communities and bump up surv