Wastewater Surveillance to Track Resurgent Measles Outbreak, Ontario, Canada, 2025

The province of Ontario, Canada, experienced a major resurgent outbreak of measles in 2025. We conducted wastewater surveillance concurrently with clinical-based surveillance to track measles incidence in southwestern Ontario, adjacent to the United States. Measles virus (MeV) signal in wastewater was positively associated with clinical cases but did not provide early alert of changes in measles incidence when resolved by epidemiologic week. Assessment of virus partitioning showed MeV RNA was broadly distributed in the liquid phase but is most concentrated in the solids. We adapted an assay for differentiation of vaccine and wild-type MeV and used it to detect vaccine genotype measles after a vaccination campaign targeting underserved groups. We estimated MeV shedding in wastewater through sampling of sewer laterals serving a hospital treating measles infections. This outbreak is a case study in which we highlighted the use of wastewater surveillance for measles while supporting method development in real time.