by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Tues. May 13, 2025
Amandala has confirmed that a cluster of measles cases was discovered in the Spanish Lookout area, with initially 2 cases being confirmed through laboratory testing on April 12, and five more persons becoming infected since then.
“We were informed that someone with fever and rash was at a facility in the Spanish Lookout area. We visited and took samples for this person, and these samples are in the process of being run. We haven’t received the results yet, but clinically, that person fits the clinical definition of measles,” Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa, Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Health & Wellness, informed reporters.
“… It appears it’s locally transmitted, because this person has no travel history. This person has nobody in the family who has traveled to Mexico, but this person is linked to someone who has recently traveled to Mexico. So, with that confirmation, and with the assessment of the team on the ground, we determined that there is ongoing transmission of measles in the Spanish Lookout community,” she went on to state.
The first few cases of the illness emerged in mid-April after two unvaccinated teenagers, both 17 years of age, a male and a female, one from Cayo and the other from Corozal, developed symptoms that were confirmed to be measles, which officials believe, based on the travel history of those two persons, was imported from neighboring countries.
Measles is a highly contagious illness caused by a virus, and is spread person-to-person via droplets suspended in the air or lying on surfaces or through direct contact with nasal or throat secretions from infected persons.
Symptoms include high fever, dry cough, a runny nose, conjunctivitis, and a rash that starts at the hairline and spreads to the chest, back, limbs, and then to the rest of the body.
Dr. Natalia Beer, Technical Advisor in Maternal and Child Health at the Health Ministry, explained to the media, “We have been going to the communities out there – the rural health nurses, the public health nurses, and the public health inspectors – working with the communities to try to increase the vaccination coverage, but 42 days after having no case, one can say the outbreak is under control and finished. We just happened to experience a second group of two persons who came from abroad, and had contact with unvaccinated persons, and unfortunately, they had measles. The contagious period is four days before the rash and five days after. So, if I only have a fever, I don’t know I have measles. I can go to an event and share with everyone, and one or two days after I have rash, I start thinking of measles. But I have already come in contact with other persons in the community. If I am unvaccinated, I will catch the measles. I was being infected at least. So that is what we are facing: a second influx of imported measles cases, and it just happened to be at Spanish Lookout,” she said.
The Spanish Lookout community is known as a vaccination resistance site, as several years ago, the community resisted receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and the infected persons are linked to persons who traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, which is also an area where there is resistance to vaccination.
In regard to efforts being taken to contain the illness, she said, “The Spanish Lookout community, we have been working closely with leaders, getting significant cooperation, and moving forward with them. So that is a positive step in terms of the vaccines being given in communities that we have identified as low-coverage communities, including Spanish Lookout is one of the communities … We know that the measles vaccine, two doses, is 99% effective against measles. But we know that if you have already been exposed, but are symptom-free, and you take the vaccine, it’s about 85 % effective. So, we’re working in that circle and trying to cover many villages, trying to cover many areas surrounding these lower areas, as well as being available regularly for persons who want to walk in for the vaccines, and doing mobile clinics as well. So, [we’re] going into smaller, more rural areas to ensure that the access is there.”
Belize had been measles-free for 34 years.