Health au­thor­i­ties say two peo­ple have been placed in iso­la­tion amid fears that they may have con­tract­ed measles from their re­turn from ar­eas known to have measles cir­cu­lat­ing.

The Epi­demi­ol­o­gy and Sur­veil­lance Unit of the Min­istry of Health said that while the high­ly con­ta­gious virus has not been con­firmed in Bermu­da since 1990, the two peo­ple have shown symp­toms con­sis­tent with measles.

Health Min­is­ter Kim Wil­son says that while the British Over­seas Ter­ri­to­ry has been for­tu­nate to have avoid­ed measles for so long, “how­ev­er, with sus­pect­ed cas­es on the is­land, we must re­main vig­i­lant to pro­tect our com­mu­ni­ty.

“Measles is a vac­cine-pre­ventable dis­ease. En­sur­ing ad­e­quate pro­tec­tion from measles and oth­er vac­cine-pre­ventable dis­eases is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant be­fore trav­el­ling abroad. If you are un­sure of your vac­ci­na­tion sta­tus, find out from your health­care provider,” she added.

The unit is seek­ing to con­tact per­sons who may have been in close prox­im­i­ty with the sus­pect­ed cas­es to ad­vise of pre­cau­tions, in­clud­ing mon­i­tor­ing their health for symp­toms.

Measles is spread by cough­ing and sneez­ing, re­main­ing in­fec­tious in the air or on sur­faces for up to two hours and symp­toms typ­i­cal­ly ap­pear sev­en to 21 days af­ter ex­po­sure.

The au­thor­i­ties said any­one ex­pe­ri­enc­ing fever, cough, run­ny nose, red and wa­tery eyes, and a rash that be­gins on the face and spreads to the rest of the body, par­tic­u­lar­ly if there has been re­cent trav­el to an area where measles is cir­cu­lat­ing or pos­si­ble con­tact with some­one sus­pect­ed of hav­ing measles, should self-iso­late and con­tact their health­care provider im­me­di­ate­ly.

HAMIL­TON, Bermu­da, Nov 18, CMC

CMC/af/ir/2024