Measles Outbreak Contained After 34 Confirmed Cases

After months of heightened surveillance and intervention, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported that the measles outbreak has been contained. The outbreak, which started in early April, was directly linked to persons who had traveled through Mexico and had infected unvaccinated individuals. The ministry confirmed a total of 34 cases during the outbreak, which were split between the Corozal and Cayo Districts. Dr. Laura Friesen, Medical Officer with the ministry, told Love News that the outbreak is considered contained since two consecutive incubation periods have passed without a newly confirmed case. 

Dr. Laura Friesen, Medical Officer, MOHW: “So measles has an incubation period between 7 and 21 days. So to be able to pass on the infection to another person you would have to have contact 7 to 21 days after you have gotten ill. And so therefore,  for two incubation periods that’s kind of an international benchmark for when we can say that at that point we should have had more cases already being reported if there was continued transmission. Surveillance is a big task that the Ministry of Health and Wellness takes on in Belize and basically for measles what we do as a ministry is that when we have cases of fever and rash reported to us that could possibly point to being a measles case these cases are tested for measles by a recognized lab which then will give us an indication if this person has measles or not. So we test people regularly when they come into the health system, when they come to the health clinics to detect if there would be a situation where there is more cases that would be rapidly detected through the sampling system and the laboratory confirmation.”

Dr. Friesen stressed that the best way to prevent measles is to vaccinate.  She encouraged the public to ensure that their children are up-to-date with routine vaccinations, particularly the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.