National measles outbreak that affected 40 is over

A national measles outbreak that left 40 people infected, half of whom were hospitalised, has been declared over.

However, specialists in public health medicine have warned that the threat of further outbreaks persists if people fail to have themselves immunised against the disease.

Writing in the December issue of Epi-Insight, an online monthly report produced by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), the doctors say the only way to prevent outbreaks is “through measles immunisation, provided by the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine”.