Measles outbreak in Andalusia, Spain, January to August 2011

• Published in: Euro surveillance : bulletin européen sur les maladies transmissibles Vol. 17; no. 42; p. 1
• Main Authors: Mayoral Cortes, Jm, Perez Morilla, E, Gallardo Garcia, V, Navarro Mari, Jm, Perez Ruiz, M, Hermosilla, R, Diaz-Borrego, J, Rodriguez Romero, E, Ruiz Fernandez, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sweden Centre Europeen pour la Surveillance Epidemiologique du SIDA (European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS) 18-10-2012
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Ambulatory Care Facilities - manpower; Ambulatory Care Facilities - standards; Child; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Contact Tracing - statistics & numerical data; Contact Tracing - trends; Disease Notification; Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control; Disease Outbreaks - statistics & numerical data; Disease transmission; Drug Administration Schedule; Epidemics; Female; Health Personnel - standards; Hospitalization; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Hospitalization - trends; Humans; Immunization Programs - organization & administration; Immunization Programs - standards; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Measles; Measles - diagnosis; Measles - epidemiology; Measles - prevention & control; Measles Vaccine - administration & dosage; Measles virus - immunology; Measles virus - isolation & purification; Measles virus - pathogenicity; Medically Underserved Area; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sentinel Surveillance; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Spain - epidemiology; Spain
• ISSN: 1560-7917; 1025-496X; 1560-7917
• DOI: 10.2807/ese.17.42.20300-en

On 7 January 2011, a six year-old child living in a Roma community near Seville, southern Spain, was hospitalised with measles. Contact tracing identified a probable index case with onset of symptoms on 20 December 2011 and several unreported cases among children under the age of 15 years in the same town. The outbreak initially spread in districts in the city of Seville with a high proportion of Roma residents, and later to other cities and towns in Andalusia. While some towns experienced wide spread of the disease with significant clusters of cases, most of the affected locations saw non-clustered cases or very few secondary cases. The outbreak resulted in 1,759 confirmed or probable cases of which 393 (19%) required hospitalisation. Measles virus of genotype D4 was diagnosed in more than half of the cases. Significant differences (p<0.0001) by age group were found between clustered and non-clustered cases. The highest proportion of clustered cases occurred in the age group of 5-14 yearolds, while the highest proportion of non-clustered cases was seen in those older than 29 years. The last confirmed case related to this outbreak was reported on 20 August 2011.