Measles cluster linked to central Taiwan hospital reaches 16 cases

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) A cluster of confirmed measles cases connected to a hospital in central Taiwan has reached 16, according to the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Speaking at a routine press conference on Tuesday, CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) confirmed there were two new cases related to the hospital cluster, with the first case in the cluster an overseas-imported index case reported on Dec. 10 last year.

The spokesperson said the CDC has traced 3,123 contacts linked to the cluster, the highest number of contacts traced for any measles cluster over the past five years.

In addition to the two new cases connected to the hospital cluster, the CDC also reported two further cases from patients who flew into Taiwan from Vietnam and India.

There have been 33 measles cases in Taiwan so far this year, according to the CDC, with 21 contracted domestically and 12 imported from abroad.

Internationally, measles cases in some countries have increased significantly over the past six months, the CDC said.

In Vietnam, for instance, there were more than 6,700 confirmed cases in 2024 -- a more than 100-fold increase compared with 2023, the agency said.

Measles is "not very common" in Taiwan nowadays because most people are vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to information published on the CDC's website.