The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced this year’s second confirmed case of measles, advising families with small children to get them vaccinated as scheduled and young people going on vacation to visit travel clinics before going to regions with measles epidemics.
A 25-year-old male with no recent travel history and an unknown vaccination history started to develop symptoms of coughing and a runny nose on July 29, and a skin rash developed two days later.
He tested positive for measles yesterday, CDC official Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said.
Of the 148 people who have had close contact with the patient, 43 have been confirmed to show no symptoms, with the remainder still under observation, Liu said.
Liu Yu-lun (劉宇倫), a disease prevention physician working at the CDC, said the man is the second case of locally-acquired measles this year.
The centers said that neighboring countries, such as China and some Southeast Asian nations, as well as some European countries are in the throes of measles outbreaks, adding that because the measles virus is easily spread between countries, children older than one year old are advised to receive the MMR vaccine immediately.
“It should be noted that both of this year’s cases involve young people, as the first case was a person also in her 20s,” Liu Yu-lun said.
The immunity provided by the vaccine might wane over time, the center said, advising young people to visit travel clinics to be tested and receive the vaccine two to four weeks before flying if it is required.
Meanwhile, the CDC also issued warnings to those who plan to travel to high-risk areas for bacillary dysentery, as the center has seen five cases of bacillary dysentery infection imported from Cambodia in the past month alone.
The public should practice a high standard of personal and food hygiene at all times, it said.
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