Alberta health officials are urging people who visited a northwest Shoppers Drug Mart earlier this month to contact them after a case of measles was confirmed at the location.

Officials say anyone who shopped at the store at 8060 Silver Springs Blvd. N.W on Sunday, April 2, between noon and 2:30 p.m. may have been exposed to the virus.

AHS says people born after 1970 who have not had measles or received two doses of the vaccine may be at risk if they visited the store during the specified time.

Officials are asking these people to register their name and contact number with Health Link at 811 so AHS can track those who were potentially exposed to the virus.

Dr. David Strong, Medical Officer of Health for the Calgary zone, says the source of the infection dates back to March 10 and can be traced to an individual who was on a flight from the UK to Toronto.

“Everybody that was on that flight, all the passengers, have been contacted via the various public health authorities dating back several weeks so just wanted to emphasize, this is the source of the infection for our Calgary case,” said Strong.

AHS says it will contact anyone else who may have been exposed to the individual in this case.

“We have been able to identify all the spaces, sites, that he had been attending to while he has been infectious and some of these spaces are what we call closed sites, meaning that we can identify everybody that was at that site and we’ve been systematically contacting those individuals to do follow up,” said Dr. Strong.

Measles is extremely contagious and is easily spread so people are being reminded to monitor themselves for symptoms.

Symptoms include:

  • Fever of 38.3° C or higher
  • Cough, runny nose and/or red eyes
  • A red blotchy rash that appears three to seven days after fever starts, beginning behind the ears and on the face and spreading down to the body and then to the arms and legs

Those who show symptoms are advised to stay home and call Health Link before going to a health facility to help reduce the risk of further exposure.

For more information on immunization, click HERE.