Measles cases from Feb. 20 Kota Kinabalu-Taoyuan flight hit 3

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) The number of confirmed measles cases from a Feb. 20 AirAsia flight between Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has risen to three, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Local health authorities said Tuesday that two infected female passengers -- a 29-year-old Hualien resident and a 34-year-old who spent time in Hsinchu -- were sat in neighboring rows to the cluster's index case, a man in his 20s, confirmed as having measles on Feb. 27.

The two women had already been listed as close contacts of the index case before they began developing symptoms, including a rash, between March 3 and 6, the CDC said.

As it takes an average of 14 days for a rash to appear following a measles infection, and an individual will be contagious in the four days before and after, flight passengers and crew should stay alert for symptoms, the CDC said.

According to CDC Deputy Director General Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞), certain passengers -- including infants under 2, crew members, as well as those in the same and surrounding rows as a confirmed measles case and their traveling companions -- will be asked to perform self-health management.

If the confirmed case is a crew member, then all passengers and crew will be asked to take precautionary measures, Lo added.

However, Lo downplayed the need to wear a mask while flying.

"Wearing an N95 mask can provide adequate protection [against measles infection] in medical facilities; however, it is not practical to advise the public to wear N95 masks throughout a flight to prevent measles," Lo said.

Lo said a more effective preventive measure would be to avoid poorly ventilated or crowded places when in countries with high numbers of measles infections.

According to the CDC, Taiwan has reported nine measles cases this year, including five locally transmitted cases and four caught overseas.

As of March 11, 1,918 people have been listed as contacts of measles cases, the CDC said.

Meanwhile, the number of patients with influenza-like symptoms seeking medical attention remained stable at 10,300 in the past week, only a slight increase of 100 more cases compared to the data from the previous week.

There are still around 40,000 free government-funded influenza vaccines, available to anyone above 6 months since last Tuesday, but this stockpile is set to run out around next week, Lo warned.