Four-year-old twin girls from Belgrade infected with measles

Photo collage: Shutterstock, Nikola Tomic

Among the new confirmed cases of measles in Belgrade are 4-year-old twins, the Institute of Public Health in Belgrade has told Telegraf.rs.

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They have not been vaccinated with the MMR vaccine.

In addition, measles were confirmed today in a 48-year-old woman, whose vaccination status is unknown.

Together with them, measles were confirmed in a total of 14 people in Belgrade, since February 6 until today.

An epidemic of measles has been declared in the city.

In addition to the capital, measles have so far been confirmed in Novi Sad and Stara Pazova.

The first case of measles this season was confirmed in Serbia on February 6 in a boy whose mother first contracted the disease abroad.

Measles are transmitted by direct contact with an infected person - through kissing, shaking hands, through the air with respiratory droplets emitted during coughing and sneezing, and rarely indirectly through freshly contaminated objects.

"The incubation, the period from the moment the virus enters the body to the manifestation of the disease, i.e. the onset of symptoms in measles lasts 7 to 18 days. After that, there is increased body temperature, nasal discharge, cough and conjunctivitis - watery, red eyes, swollen eyelids.

These symptoms last 2 to 4 days, after which there is a jump in body temperature, over 40 degrees and the appearance of a rash first on the face, behind the ears and on the neck, which then spreads to the rest of the body," the Institute of Public Health in Belgrade explained for Telegraf.

An infected person is contagious on the last day of incubation, while still without symptoms, 4 days before the outbreak of measles and 4 days after.

"Complications are more common in children under the age of 5 and adults over the age of 20. These are pneumonia, inflammation of the middle ear, diarrhea, inflammation of the brain and loss of vision. Pneumonia occurs in one in 20 patients, and about 60 percent of deaths occur precisely because of this complication. One in 1,000 patients gets inflammation of the brain, while one in 1,000 patients with this complication dies," the Institute told Telegraf.rs.

(Telegraf.rs)