Toronto health officials warn of measles exposure at April 1 concert

Toronto Public Health is warning of a potential measles exposure at a recent concert.

Health officials say anyone who attended the Forrest Frank show at Coca-Cola Coliseum on April 1 may have been exposed to the virus.

TPH says a visitor to the city who has tested positive attended the show and concert goers are being asked to check their vaccination status.

“Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs, sneezes or talks,” TPH said in a release on Friday. “The virus can stay in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours. People can become infected if they breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.”

Measles usually begins with a fever, cough, runny nose and red watery eyes, followed by a red blotchy rash that starts on the face and spreads to the body and limbs.

The virus can lead to pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and death.

So far this year, TPH has confirmed two cases of measles in the city linked to travel outside of Canada.

There have been 816 cases reported by Public Health Ontario since an outbreak began in the fall. Sixty-one people have been hospitalized including 47 children. Unimmunized kids are the predominant group infected by the outbreak.

Physicians have been calling on the province to create a central digital vaccine registry for over a decade with the spread of measles shining light on the outdated yellow immunization cards.

The Ontario Health Coalition calls the situtation a “public health failure that must be addressed with the utmost urgency.”

“People are confused as to what they should do. Public Health needs to make clear and highly visible the fact that the virus is airborne and easily transmitted. There are far too many people who are not immunized and the language being used regarding people born before or after 1970 is confusing and unclear for regular people,” said the coalition’s executive director Natalie Mehra.