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EDAbrupt measles outbreak

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Health authorities should do more to check further spread

The nation has been put on a sudden alert over the possible spread of measles as more than 30 people nationwide have been confirmed to have contracted the highly contagious disease over the past one month.

The abrupt measles outbreak is a serious problem in that South Korea declared in 2006 that there were no local measles patients and the World Health Organization certified the nation's eradication of the disease in 2014.

However, the exact cause of the outbreak has not been identified yet. Health authorities only suspect the measles virus to have come from abroad, amid public concern that the government's epidemic prevention system might have been ineffective.

In fact, measles has been spreading in Europe, China, Thailand and the Philippines of late. But the government has apparently failed to take any prompt action against the influx of the virus into Korea as indicated by the patient confirmed in Seoul who reportedly became infected after traveling to Vietnam.

Health authorities have to pay attention to some health experts' view that it is not normal to have measles infections in various areas nationwide at the same time, even though the virus came from abroad.

Experts say that measles is very infectious with a long incubation period raising the possibility of a rapid spread. Symptoms are similar to those of a cold, causing difficulty in early diagnosis. What's important at this stage is a joint effort by the authorities and the people to prevent the further spread of the disease.

The measles virus is transmitted by air through coughing or sneezing. Therefore, people have to be more concerned about their individual sanitation and the authorities should find people who were in contact with confirmed patients as soon as possible to treat them. As the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention advises, those at high risk of infection need to get vaccinated.

The cases of SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2015 should have been a good lesson to learn of the importance of the government's initial reaction to the abrupt measles outbreak.






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