A cluster of confirmed measles cases connected to a hospital in central Taiwan has reached 16, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
Speaking at a routine news conference, CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) confirmed there were two new cases related to the hospital cluster, with the first case in the cluster an overseas-imported index case reported on Dec. 10 last year.
Photo: Taipei Times
The CDC has traced 3,123 contacts linked to the cluster, the highest number of contacts traced for any measles cluster over the past five years, Tseng said.
In addition to the two new cases connected to the hospital cluster, the CDC also reported two further cases from patients who flew into Taiwan from Vietnam and India.
There have been 33 measles cases in Taiwan so far this year, according to the CDC, with 21 contracted domestically and 12 imported from abroad.
Internationally, measles cases in some countries have increased significantly over the past six months, the CDC said.
In Vietnam, for instance, there were more than 6,700 confirmed cases last year — a more than 100-fold increase compared with 2023, the agency said.
Measles is "not very common" in Taiwan nowadays because most people are vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to information published on the CDC's Web site.
Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎), chair of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said today that the risk of a widespread outbreak is low, as Taiwan has a high rate of MMR immunization.
Upwards of 98 percent of Taiwanese children receive the vaccine, making it possible for Taiwan to control measles outbreaks, he said.
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