The Ministry of Health in Peru, Minsa, declared a health alert on Saturday after confirming a case of measles imported from Spain, identified in a municipality of Lima.
“In a statement, the ministry ordered the ‘epidemiological alert and risk of endemic transmission of measles virus in the country due to the presence of an imported case’, Radio Agricultura said last weekend.
The case was confirmed on April 8 in a 40-year-old Peruvian woman who has lived since eight years ago in the Spanish Canary Islands and entered Peru on March 21 by air. She is currently in the intensive care unit of the Arzobispo Loayza Hospital.
Measles has been eradicated in Peru for 18 years. It was a common infection until the vaccine was introduced and some of the symptoms are fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and the presence of white spots inside the mouth.
“However, in 2018, 42 cases of measles were confirmed in Lima, Callao, Puno, La Libertad, Cusco, Ica, Amazonas and Piura, according to the Minsa”, the aforementioned media said.