Take proactive precautions when measles enters an outbreak cycle

Director of the Provincial Center for Disease Control Hoang Hai Phuc said that measles is transmitted very quickly through the respiratory tract, 90% of people who are not immune will get the disease if they come into close contact with measles patients and on average one infected person can infect 12-18 others and the transmission can only be stopped when community immunity reaches at least 95%. Measles has had large epidemics in cycles of about 5 years due to the accumulation of subjects who are not immune to measles in the community.

Specifically, in the period from 2021 to 2023, the whole province recorded no cases of measles. However, by 2024, the measles epidemic increased dramatically with 898 cases of measles and in the first 3 months of 2025, the whole province recorded over 1,000 cases of rash fever suspected of measles, of which over 200 cases tested positive for measles virus.

The Ministry of Health's working group supervises measles vaccination in Buon Ma Thuot City.

Faced with complicated developments, the Provincial Center for Disease Control has promptly supported medical centers in districts, towns and cities to deploy epidemic prevention and control activities such as monitoring, isolation, and triage to avoid cross-infection at medical examination and treatment facilities and disinfecting and sanitizing patient rooms.

At the same time, closely coordinate with local departments and branches to investigate and review statistics of all children under 5 years old of regular vaccination age who have not been vaccinated, have not received enough doses or have unknown history of vaccination against measles and measles-rubella to conduct catch-up and catch-up vaccinations for these subjects.

Expand the group of children 6-9 months old to receive 1 additional dose of measles vaccine and the group of children 6-10 years old to receive 2 doses of vaccine containing measles according to the plan of the Ministry of Health.

In addition, upon receiving information about suspected measles cases, the provincial Center for Disease Control directed units to spray disinfectant with Cloramin B in the patient treatment area, in the households and households surrounding the patient's living area. Thousands of vitamin A tablets were provided to medical facilities treating measles patients.

At Buon Ma Thuot General Hospital, from July 2024 to now, the hospital has admitted and treated more than 500 measles cases. To avoid being passive in the face of the risk of disease outbreaks, the hospital has implemented 3 epidemic prevention and control plans according to levels, prepared medicines, medical supplies and human resources to ensure that the cases of hospital transfer due to worsening disease are minimized.

Screening for children at risk of measles to determine treatment.

Cases of unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated people over many years will create an immune gap, reducing the ability to protect against the risk of spreading.

Director of the Provincial Center for Disease Control Hoang Hai Phuc

Deputy Director of the Central Highlands General Hospital Nguyen Ngoc Thinh also said that the hospital has set up a screening clinic at the patient reception area, with suspected measles cases being classified and sent to the pediatric and infectious disease treatment area. Since the beginning of the year, the hospital has admitted and treated more than 200 measles cases, most of whom are children. The hospital has also prepared human resources and material resources to respond to the epidemic situation, which could increase to 400 beds.

With the policy of early detection, avoiding missing suspected measles cases as well as promptly preventing the source of infection to the community, the health sector has implemented synchronous solutions to prevent and treat the disease effectively.

Specifically, for prevention work, the Provincial Center for Disease Control has provided sufficient quantities of vaccines and supported localities in reviewing and implementing measles vaccination campaigns for subjects eligible for vaccination.

Accordingly, at the end of the second measles vaccination campaign in the province, the whole province vaccinated 41,787 children, reaching a rate of 96.8%.

Of which, the vaccination rate for children aged 6 months to under 9 months is 95.1%; the rate for children aged 1 to 5 years is 96.4%; the rate for children aged 6 to 10 years is 97.4%. Currently, the health sector is continuing to provide catch-up, supplementary, and booster vaccinations to increase the vaccination rate and prevent epidemics more effectively.

According to the Director of the Provincial Center for Disease Control Hoang Hai Phuc, the measles epidemic is forecasted to have a general downward trend in the coming time, but has not stopped because this year is in the epidemic's return cycle, so we need to be very careful. Currently, measles vaccination is the most important disease prevention measure. The widespread implementation of measles vaccination for many years has successfully controlled measles. However, the implementation of measles vaccination still faces many challenges, which was clearly shown in the vaccination campaign in March. Specifically, the group of children aged 6-10 years old lost many personal vaccination books and moved between localities to school locations, making it difficult to check vaccination history. The number of children who were previously vaccinated by service did not want to be vaccinated by campaign but wanted to be vaccinated according to the vaccination service appointment schedule. Some areas have a lot of population movement, ethnic minorities do not live in concentrated areas, making it difficult to access for communication and consultation...

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202504/chu-dong-phong-ngua-khi-benh-soi-vao-chu-ky-bung-phat-22218b7/