The first cluster of measles cases in Taiwan this year has been reported in Taichung, with five confirmed cases and up to 152 people who have been in contact with them, the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The cluster migration originated from a 40-year-old Vietnamese man, whose illness was discovered on Tuesday last week, the centers said.
A separate case was another man who was on the same plane as the Vietnamese man and had interacted with him, the CDC said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The CDC said it is closely monitoring 28 passengers who had been seated behind the Vietnamese man.
The CDC said it would observe 152 people, who might have come in contact with the five cases, until Jan. 5.
CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said that the centers and the local government’s Department of Health visited the hospital on Tuesday and suggested how the facility could tighten measures to prevent outbreaks.
The measures included a review of hospital records on whether staff have received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, and vaccination of those testing negative as soon as possible.
Hospital employees should monitor their health frequently, and the hospital’s end-of-year event should be replaced with educational events on how to control measles infections, the centers said.
The virus can be active and contagious for up to two hours after leaving a person’s body and is transmissible when airborne, Tseng said, adding that a person can infect 18 to 20 others.
Measles outbreaks have been reported in Thailand and Ho Chih Min City, Vietnam, as well as other provinces in southern Vietnam, Tseng said.
People frequently travel to Taiwan from both countries, she said.
The number of measles cases in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and China has been higher than usual, and outbreaks are still being reported, the centers said, urging people to be careful when traveling abroad.
The CDC said Taiwan has recorded 19 cases of measles this year, all people aged 20 to 40.
Ten cases were local infections, nine were overseas infections and three were infected while on the same plane as other cases, it said.
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