All it takes is one case to be classified as an outbreak and the Ministry Of Health And Wellness has identified a total of 12 measles cases so far in Belize. Their team has been actively conducting surveillance since the first confirmed case, and this afternoon Acting Deputy Director of Public Health and Wellness, Dr Laura Friesen said all the cases ar linked to travel to Guatemala:
Dr Laura Friesen, Acting Dep Director of Public Health and Wellness
"We are noticing that these cases are all linked to travel to Guatemala or linked to travelers from Guatemala due to the big rise that they are having from April, May of this year so that is what the situation is currently. We are conducting surveillance activities countrywide, we are following up all of our cases that we identified to ensure that the proper clinical treatment his given and that persons are placed in isolation to reduce the risk of transmission in the community as well."
"So we have 4 clusters we have 2 clusters in Punta Gorda there were different introductions both related to travel to Guatemala we have a small cluster here in the Cayo District and we have also a small cluster in Belize City that is one case in specific."
"So what happens is how we define a cluster is that the persons that are related to the initial case that is considered a cluster so for example if there is a household or one person gets sick first several other persons in the household then get sick based on that initial sick person then that is what we consider a cluster. So meaning that if we have 4 clusters we have had some transmission in country but we can trace all of those situations to either import related or directly imported cases."
