NORTHERN IRELAND HAS DECLARED its second measles outbreak of the year, after an eighth case was confirmed.
The recent cases have involved Down High School, a primary school in Downpatrick, Belfast Bible College in Dunmurry, and Queen’s University in Belfast.
The Belfast Telegraph reports that none of the patients involved had received the MMR vaccination.
Measles is particularly dangerous for young children, according to the World Health Organistaion.
The first symptom, which usually appears about nine days after infection, is a high fever which lasts between four and seven days. The WHO says that other early symptoms can include “a runny nose, a cough, red and watery eyes, and small white spots inside the cheeks”:
After several days, a rash erupts, usually on the face and upper neck. Over about three days, the rash spreads, eventually reaching the hands and feet.
The rash lasts for five to six days, and then fades. On average, the rash occurs 14 days after exposure to the virus (within a range of seven to 18 days).
Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency advises anyone who may have had contact with an infected person and feels ill to stay at home because the illness is infectious in its earliest days.
The PHA also asks people who fear they may have contracted measles to phone their GP for advice, rather than sit in a doctor’s waiting room where other people may be exposed to it.
Last May, a doctor who published a study in 1998 claiming there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism was struck off the medical register in Britain, after an investigation into his study questioned his research methods and professional conduct.
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