Porto’s Santo António hospital is on measles alert after seven confirmed cases and 25 ‘possibles’ – people who may have contracted the highly-contagious disease, almost all of them members of staff.
Pressing the message home that anyone who has not been fully -vaccinated could be at risk, general director of health Graça Freitas has suggested that the outbreak started with the arrival at the hospital of a 27-year-old man who contracted the disease in France.
The man was not vaccinated against measles, she said.
He went on to infect a 43-year-old man and five other hospital professionals, three of which are now interned and one of whom is described as in an “unstable condition”.
Graça Freitas has not explained whether all the victims are people who were not vaccinated.
For now, there has been no registration of any inpatients with symptoms, reports tabloid Correio da Manhã – and authorities appeal to anyone who suspects they may have measles to telephone Linda Saúde 24 (808 242424) or their family doctor.
The bottom line message is that no-one with symptoms that could be measles should go to Casualty departments or health centres, as this will only help the outbreak spread even further.
Measles has been ‘creeping back’ in Europe due to so many people balking at taking the MMR triple vaccine.
Despite authorities’ insistence that the vaccine is safe, thousands of parents have been refusing to vaccinate their children for years, leading to a situation where there is no longer ‘herd immunity’ in many countries.
Measles hit the headlines in Portugal almost exactly a year ago when 17-year-old Inês Sampaio died from complications of the disease. The teen was the country’s first measles-related death in decades (click here).
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
