The Centre for Health Protection is investigating an outbreak of measles involving five people from a sheltered workshop in Wan Chai.

Three men and two women aged 22 to 44 have contracted the infection. One of them, a 37-year-old woman is a resident of a hostel for the mentally handicapped in Southern District.

She was noted to have symptoms of measles including fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and skin rash on March 20. She sought medical attention from the Queen Mary Hospital on the same day. Blood samples taken from her tested positive for measles on March 30.

Centre for Health Protection staff visited the sheltered workshop and the hostel on March 31 and took blood samples from five workers at the workshop who had developed a rash in the past three weeks. Results of laboratory tests available today confirmed that blood samples taken from four of them tested positive for measles.

Activites temporarily suspended

The management of the sheltered workshop has been advised to suspend activities in the workshop.

Another attendee of the sheltered workshop who is a resident of a hostel in Sheung Wan also developed a rash on March 28. Results of laboratory tests for measles infection are pending. 

To prevent the possible spread of measles in the workshop and the two hostels concerned, MMR vaccination is being arranged for attendees of the three establishments. All the staff members and residents of the sheltered workshop and the two hostels have been put under medical surveillance.

Measles is one of the most highly contagious infectious diseases. It is spread by droplets or by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people and less commonly, by articles soiled with nose and throat secretions.

The incubation period ranges from seven to 18 days and patients can pass the disease to other people from the beginning of the disease to four days after the appearance of the rash. There is no specific treatment and patients usually recover on their own. The fatality rate is less than 1%.