THE measles outbreak declared earlier this month in the Murcia region town of Alcantarilla has risen to eight confirmed cases.
The working theory that the outbreak had its origins at a baptism ceremony has now been discarded by the region’s health ministry.
Health minister, Juan Jose Pedreño, said that control work carried out by the Epidemiology Service, has allowed the outbreak not to ‘get out of hand’.
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He said it has been possible to identify the close contacts of those affected, so infections ‘are limited’.
The Ministry has not provided specific details about the affected patients, although it has specified that four of the new declared cases were found because they had contact with previous infected people.
It added that this contact investigations have made it possible to limit the spread of the outbreak.
Up to last Thursday, four cases were identified, namely three adults and a baby from Alcantarilla.
The Ministry pointed out that the first cases were confirmed on May 5.
Since then it has been possible to considerably reduce the time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis.
In the first batch of cases, the process took up to two weeks, while in the next four, the diagnosis was made in just  five days.
The Ministry is also advising anybody who is unvaccinated or unsure of their vaccination status against measles to contact their local health centre.
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