Some clinical, epidemiologycal and viral characteristics of measles in Bac Giang province, 2013 – 2019

Abstract

Measles is a highly contagious and respiratory transmission disease. Although measles can be prevented by safety, effective and widely-used vaccines, measles outbreak occurred in 3 – 5 year cycle. In Bac Giang, the rash fever surveillance has been set up systematically for many years. With a available collection of epidemiological information, clinical samples from 2013 to
2019, we described epidemiological, clinical and molecular characterictics of measles in Bac Giang. The results showed that in 7-year period from 2013 to 2019. There were two big outbreaks of measles occuring in 2014 and 2019 with the total confrmed number of 261 cases (47.02% rash and fever cases). Children under 1 year of age accounted nearly a half of measles cases (42.53%), 83.14% measles cases were unvaccinated. The genotypes detected in two outbreaks were H1 and D8, respectively. The measles viruses had high genetical similars with epidemic strains in Vietnam and neighbouring countries in the same period. The study provided the baseline data for the managers modifed the preventive strategies according to the local characteristics in order to achieve measles elimination.