The year’s second case of imported measles has been confirmed, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Friday as it issued a travel alert for the Philippines, where the two cases originated.
The latest patient to contract the disease is a seven-month-old girl, who had not been vaccinated due to her age. It is thought that she came into contact with an infected person while on a family trip in the Philippines.
The baby started to display symptoms such as cough, fever, a runny nose and a rash 10 days after her family came back to Taiwan in the middle of last month and was later diagnosed with measles.
She has since been released from quarantine, the health agencies said, adding that it had monitored 398 people who had contact with the baby, but that none have developed any symptoms.
The CDC said that the Philippines is currently experiencing a measles outbreak, with 1,163 cases reported there so far this year, 4.7 percent of which have been confirmed.
Other countries have also reported cases of measles imported from the Philippines, including Singapore, Australia, Canada and Japan, the CDC said, adding that the majority of infected patients had not been adequately protected against the disease.
The health authority has issued a first-level “watch” notice for travelers to the Philippines and has advised the public to avoid bringing children under the age of one and those not yet vaccinated for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) to regions experiencing measles outbreaks.
It cautioned that measles is a highly infectious disease, but which can be prevented through immunization. Adults traveling to measles-active areas should get inoculated two to four weeks before their departure even if they were vaccinated as children, because their immunity might have since waned, the CDC said.
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