The Health Bureau (SSM) has issued a warning regarding a measles outbreak in Okinawa, Japan, which has also affected Taiwan.
The SSM informed that it is currently monitoring the situation in neighboring regions and warns residents with children younger than one years old are not to travel to affected areas.
The bureau also states that it will not permit vaccinations of children below the age of one, even if those children are travelling, because the vaccine has limited effectiveness in infants of such a young age. According to the SSM, the vaccine is not immediately effective and requires a minimum of two weeks to trigger some degree of immunity.
The bureau also warns all parents to avoid travelling to affected areas with unvaccinated infants, noting that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the clinical efficacy of the first vaccination in infants under nine months of age or between nine and 11 months of age is only 72 to 77 percent efficacious respectively. The vaccine’s efficacy increases to 93 percent if the child is over one year of age.
When the vaccination process is complete after the second inoculation, the vaccine produces an efficacy of 97 percent.
According to the WHO recommendations, Macau has developed a vaccination regime in which children are vaccinated against measles first at 12 months of age, and again at 18 months. This regime provides permanent protection against measles, according to the SSM.
In the past, the first inoculation that was given to nine-month-old children was suspended due to low efficiency and due to the absence of any current risks of an epidemic outbreak in Macau, given that the disease had been well under control for a long time.
Nevertheless, the SSM noted that there are several neighboring regions where outbreaks of the disease occur often, especially in some provinces in the mainland, Taiwan and Okinawa, advising residents to take special precautions when travelling to these locations.
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