Alberta Health Services has announced new restrictions on the number of visitors at some health-care facilities in the province to help prevent the spread of measles.
Spokesperson Kristi Bland tells Global News the temporary restrictions will limit the number of visitors at those facilities to two.
They include inpatient and outpatient services at the new Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Calgary and the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, as well as ambulatory services at the Jack Ady Cancer Centre in Lethbridge and Grand Prairie Cancer Centre.
Some other AHS facilities are also being given the option to implement the new restrictions, but Bland said the decision is being left up to the management of those facilities.
The patients and health-care facilities that could be affected include:
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- Patients who are measles positive or are suspected to be positive in pediatric and adult hospitals
- Neonatal intensive care units, pediatric intensive care units (NICU, PICU, PIICU)
- Labour, delivery and postpartum units
- Oncology sites and designated units or care spaced for both inpatient and outpatient services
- Units and programs housing measles-vulnerable patients, including those who are pregnant, under five years old, or have a weakened immune system
- Other patients upon consultation with a medical officer of health or infection prevention and control
Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the new visitor restrictions are being implemented out of “an abundance of caution.”
“People that are in hospital, obviously, they are often times immunocompromised and they have other issues, so we want to safeguard our hospitals to make sure that anyone that may enter into the hospital is not bringing something in, just as we would do with flu, COVID, RSV, etc.”
AHS has issued a growing number of public alerts in recent weeks for possible measles exposures at health-care facilities in the province, including the Alberta Children’s hospital and South Health Campus in Calgary, the Grey Nuns, Stollery Children’s and University of Alberta hospitals in Edmonton, the Grand Prairie Regional hospital as well as health-care facilities in a number of other smaller communities in the province.
The full list of public alerts for possible measles exposures is available online.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can also include complications such as ear infections, pneumonia, brain inflammation, premature delivery and, in rare instances, death.
People who are pregnant, under five years of age or have a weakened immune system are most vulnerable.
More information on the disease, including symptoms and vaccinations, is available on the province’s website.
On Thursday, Alberta Health Services reported 15 newly confirmed cases of measles over the past 24 hours, for a total of 1,511 cases since the beginning of March 2025.
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