Six babies of unvaccinated mothers born with measles

Six babies with unvaccinated mothers have been born with congenital measles in the Canadian province of Ontario since the start of an outbreak of the disease in October last year.

- Leyland Cecco

Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, said infants who were infected with measles in the womb had recovered but that the infections could have been prevented through routine vaccination.

Congenital measles, which refers to cases in which a child is born already infected with the highly contagious disease, can produce inflammation of the brain and in some cases, death.

Canada achieved "elimination status" for measles in 1998, meaning the virus is no longer circulating regularly. But the scale of the outbreak in Ontario could overturn that.