Measles – Tunisia

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From 1 January through 30 April 2019, the Ministry of Health in Tunisia responded to a large measles outbreak in the country. A total of 3 141 suspected cases, of which 909 (28.9%) were laboratory confirmed and 1 236 (39.4 %) epidemiologically linked cases including 30 deaths (case fatality ratio=1.0 %), have been reported in all of the 24 governorates (range 1 – 1 274). The majority of cases were reported from Kasserine (1 274 cases) and Sfax (212 cases) governorates. In April 2019, four additional governorates were particularly affected with 155, 116, 93 and 69 cases reported from Kairouan, Tunis, Sousse and Nabeul respectively.

The two most affected age groups were those older than 15 years (31%) and infants between the age of 6 and 12 months (28%). The male: female ratio was 1.2. Eighty four percent of affected children between 1 and 5 years were not vaccinated. Death was reported in 30 cases ranging in age from 15 days to 41 years of age (median, 7.5 months).

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