Hanoi’s Municipal Department of Health has stated the capital could be on the verge of a measles outbreak.
The city has reported over 270 new measles infections in 2018 so far. This is more than four times as many measles cases as 2017, when only 60 infections were recorded throughout the entire year, VnExpress reports.
Eighteen measles patients were hospitalized in Hanoi last week alone. The majority of them were children under the age of five who had not received measles vaccinations, the news source shares.
Measles is a highly contagious airborne virus, marked by symptoms including a high fever, dry cough, runny eyes and a sore throat. Hanoi previously experienced a measles outbreak in 2014, when 1,700 infections left 14 people dead.
It is estimated that more than 7,000 children in the city have not been immunized against the virus. Nguyen Nhat Cam, director of Hanoi’s Preventative Medicine Center, urged local parents to take their children to medical centers to be vaccinated. Cam also stated that women hoping to conceive should ensure their vaccinations are up to date, the news site adds.
While measles is treatable, one fatality was reported in Hanoi last year. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, 2.6 million people are killed by measles annually worldwide.
[Photo via Creative Commons]
