oa Measles outbreak among Pakistani community living in Qatar, Spring 2015

Background: Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus that can be serious in all age groups. However, measles complications more like to occur in children younger than five years and adult older than 20 years. Qatar is one of the Eastern Mediterranean (EMR) countries that are committed to achieving measles elimination target by 2015. However, Qatar has been experiencing a measles outbreak mainly due to a unique population characteristic, which includes highly transient expatriate population.

Objectives: To describe the incidence and morbidity to measles outbreak among the Pakistani community living in Abu Hamour area in spring 2015.

Methods: Data collection was done through the system of mandatory notification of the Health Protection and communicable disease control department (HP&CDC). All notified cases were interviewed with standardized questionnaire that are distributed to the families during the vaccination campaign. The information about disease complications was obtained from Health care facilities. Clinical case definition was adopted from world health organization (WHO).

Results: A total of 36 cases were diagnosed with measles from mid-March until end of April 2015. The index case was traveled recently to Pakistan, hence this outbreak was associated with the imported virus. Most of cases were from Pakistani community living in Abu Hamour area and the age distribution of cases was more of younger age groups (especially the 1–4 year group). Concerning measles vaccination history, all reported cases never vaccinated before. Conjunctivitis (36.1%) followed by gastroenteritis (30.6%) were the most common complications.

Conclusion: An accumulation of non-immune individuals led to this outbreak. Catch-up vaccination campaigns targeting a younger age group of a particular immigrant community are needed to close critical immunity gaps.