Chilean health officials have reported the first two measles cases of 2018. Both are confirmed, imported cases reported in November.
According to the Chile Public Health Institute (ISP):
The first case is a 42-year-old woman of Colombian nationality who had rash onset on 8 November 2018 and has been a resident of Chile for more than 10 years. The probable place of infection might be Ecuador or Colombia, as the case had stayed in both countries in the days prior to symptom onset. No secondary cases have been confirmed. Genotyping results indicated genotype D8, with the lineage results pending.
The second case is a 4-year-old male child of Venezuelan nationality who had rash onset on 23 November 2018. The case arrived in Chile on 18 November 2018 by land from the city of Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela; he traveled through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru prior to reaching Chile through the northern part of the country. No secondary cases have been confirmed. Laboratory confirmation was carried out through serological tests and by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); genotyping results indicated genotype D8, with the lineage results pending.
The last outbreak associated with imported cases in Chile was in 2015, with 9 confirmed cases reported (viral genotype H1).
In the Americas as of 30 November, a total of 16,766 confirmed measles cases, including 86 deaths, have been reported in 12 countries of the region.
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