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Over the past six weeks, Belize has confirmed eight cases of measles, prompting renewed concern from health authorities as the Ministry of Health and Wellness intensifies its surveillance and response efforts nationwide. The latest figures come after Belize recorded approximately forty-four confirmed measles cases during 2025, raising fears among officials that imported infections and cross-border movement could continue to fuel transmission among unvaccinated populations. In a public advisory issued today, the Ministry warned that unvaccinated persons living in or travelling to border communities remain at heightened risk of exposure, particularly as international travel continues to increase. Additional suspected cases are currently under review by health authorities. According to the Ministry, measles is a highly contagious viral illness that spreads rapidly through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through direct contact with an infected individual. During an interview with Love News amid growing regional concerns over measles, Dr. Laura Friesen of the Ministry of Health and Wellness warned that while Belize continues to maintain relatively strong vaccination coverage, the highly contagious nature of measles means unvaccinated persons remain especially vulnerable.
Dr. Laura Friesen, Medical Officer, MOHW: “The reason that we should be concerned is that measles is a serious disease. So it is one of the most contagious diseases known to mankind. For every ten unvaccinated individuals exposed to measles, nine will get sick. And so therefore I believe that we should be concerned because we haven’t seen this level of measles in our region for many years. And so this is something new for a lot of us. A whole generation has kind of grown up without seeing measles. And so now it’s back and we need to try to minimize it as best possible both from the health perspective and from the public’s perspective. I think across the whole region of the Americas there are pockets of population that is not vaccinated. So as a region we have had good vaccination rates overall compared to some other regions in the world but due to the high contagiousness of measles it has still led to that susceptible population which is now driving these outbreaks in the different countries. If you are already vaccinated your risk of getting measles is quite low so there’s not a need for you to do additional vaccines at this point. However, it is advised if you’re unvaccinated and you are planning to travel to get vaccinated before you travel and also if you are unvaccinated and you are exposed during your travels you would need to isolate for 21 days because the incubation period is up to 21 days so even if you have contact with someone with measles you feel fine you feel great for 20 days on the 21st day you start with fever and cough it is likely that you are now starting with measles.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Friesen had also explained last month that Belize continues to coordinate closely with regional and international partners as part of a wider cross-border strategy aimed at containing the spread of the virus.
Dr. Laura Friesen, Medical Officer, MOHW: “We know that measles can be spread even while the person is doesn’t have symptoms, is symptomatic. So as far as cross border what we do is for example, for Belize we do have signs up at all our borders and all our entry points asking people to look out for symptoms, to report if they have any symptoms. We are encouraging people to get vaccinated at our borders. And then we work closely with Mexico, we work closely with Guatemala in as far as reporting any cases that are being imported from these countries so that we can both simultaneously control the outbreaks in our countries because we don’t want to give, you know, we don’t want to export measles to our neighboring countries and we don’t want to get it imported into our country. So we have a lot of collaboration within the region. We do have a population that is very mobile. So we work closely in our country but we also work with authorities in other countries whenever any situation arises that involves any citizen that is traveling or that lives in another country. We are encouraging all families and parents to take this outbreak in our region seriously and to seek medical attention to get that vaccine for their children and for any adults that might be unvaccinated and susceptible. So we have a good vaccination rate but we still have gaps in our population that would make us susceptible to more outbreaks. So we are highly encouraging vaccination is really the key to breaking up this spread, reducing the spread so that is the message that we would like to give to the whole population.”
The disease poses a particularly serious threat to children under the age of five. Symptoms may include fever, cough, runny nose, red or watery eyes, and a rash that usually begins on the face before spreading across the body. Symptoms can appear between seven and twenty-one days after exposure. The Ministry says persons who believe they may have been exposed to measles are being advised to contact the nearest health center or call the Ministry’s hotline at 0-800-MOH-CARE for guidance.
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