As cases of measles continue to climb across Canada, employers can support employee health and productivity by educating workers on vaccines and encouraging them to maintain up-to-date vaccinations, says Ajit Johal, a community pharmacist, clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and founder of vaccine education non-profit organization immunize.io.
“A healthy workforce is a vaccinated workforce. If an employee gets sick with a preventable illness, they’ll be covered by our health-care system, but it won’t cover missed workdays and [the impact] of presenteeism or absenteeism. The employer is really invested in preventing these things from happening.”
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The measles virus is highly infectious and spread through the air and by contact with respiratory secretions from the nose and mouth. The symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a rash that begins on the face spreads to the torso, arms and legs. In severe cases, the disease can lead to respiratory failure and death.
According to Health Canada, as of May 16, there were a total of 1,846 measles cases — 1,593 confirmed and 253 probable — across nine jurisdictions, including British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The majority (1,460) of these cases have been reported in Ontario, according to the agency, which noted while the current measles outbreak began in New Brunswick last October, there have been no cases reported in that province in 2025.
Immunity to measles can vary, notes Johal. While Canadians born prior to 1970 are largely considered immune due to widespread transmission of the disease in the mid-20th century and those born after 1970 have likely had two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, individuals who are immunocompromised aren’t able to receive the vaccine, making it incumbent upon employers to promote vaccination as a way of protecting their entire workforce.
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Although employers may consider hosting onsite vaccination clinics, Johal says in most provinces, they can also direct employees to their local pharmacist for the vaccine, as many Canadians don’t currently have a family doctor. According to the Canadian Pharmacists Association, pharmacists in all provinces and territories except for Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Ontario can administer the MMR vaccine.
“[Pharmacists] are typically a lot more accessible because a lot of people don’t have family doctors or aren’t going to try and go through the gauntlet of booking an appointment.”
While the majority of cases in the current outbreak were from exposures within Canada, Health Canada noted cases can be imported from other countries in which the disease is circulating, putting employers that require employees to travel for work at particular risk for measles, he notes.
The outbreak can also spark conversations between employers and employees around other diseases that can be prevented through vaccination, such as tetanus and cancers caused by human papillomavirus, he adds.
“Most employers have a heterogeneous employee age demographic and they should be up to date on their vaccines. Measles is a little like the canary in the coal mine and when that canary starts chirping, it’s a good time to talk about other things that could potentially harm your employees.”