Breaking news on measles outbreak in Tenerife

The Department of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Directorate General of Public Health of the Canary Islands Health Service, closes the measles outbreak declared last May, without registering new cases and after the time period provided for in the protocol for action in case of an outbreak of this disease.

The outbreak included four confirmed cases of measles, three of which were minors and one an adult. The index case was a minor who had not been vaccinated, while the two affected children had not yet been vaccinated. The Directorate General of Public Health followed up with more than 400 contacts of the cases to check their vaccination status and inform them of measures to take if they started to show symptoms.

The Importance of Vaccination

The General Directorate of Public Health of the GKS is mindful of the importance of vaccination to prevent the transmission of measles, a disease of which no new cases have been reported for many years. In this sense, it insists that the vaccine is the safest and most effective means of preventing infection or transmission of measles.

The measles vaccine is given in two doses at 12 months and three years of age, and 95 percent of the Canary Islands population is properly vaccinated in the first year of life.

Measles is a febrile exanthematous disease that begins with fever, nasal congestion, cough, and sometimes small erythematous spots with a whitish center may appear on the oral mucosa. The rash, which appears on the third to seventh day after the onset of symptoms, begins on the face and spreads throughout the body. It is highly contagious and is transmitted by airborne droplets or direct contact with infected people.

In 2017, the WHO declared Spain free of endemic measles transmission due to the low number of cases and outbreaks detected. However, cases have recently been reported in nine autonomous regions, with outbreaks reported in five of them.