Dritan Ulqinaku1, Rexhep Muja2, Ermelinda Musta2, Mimoza Sinjari2
1 Institute of Public Health, Tirana, Albania;
2 Local Health Care Unit, Tirana, Albania.
Aim: Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10-12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7-10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than 40°C, cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes. Small white spots known as Koplik’s spots may form inside the mouth two or three days after the start of symptoms. In 2018 we had an epidemic outbreak of measles in the capital of Albania, Tirana.
Methodology: This is a descriptive studythat will help us understand the cause of the epidemic outbreak of measles during the year 2018.
In our analysis we took all the 1038 cases that were reported as measles cases at the Mother Theresa Hospital of Tirana. All the reported cases were inhabitants of municipality of Tirana, Kamza and Vora.
Results: In total we had 1098 cases of measles in Tirana. The most affected age group were the age group 0-1 years old (295 cases), followed by age group 16 to 20 years old (169 cases) and after that the age group 26-30 and so on.
The highest incidence was reported at the health center in Kamza (31.1 cases per 10.000 inhabitants), followed by the health center in Sauk (26.6 cases per 10.000 inhabitants), Paskuqani (20/10.000), Dajti (18.2/10.000), Qyteti.Studenti (17.2/10.000). The lowest incidence was shown at the health center in Shëngjergji and at the health center nr. 2, 4 and 8 located in the center of Tirana.
Conclusions: This outbreak shows to us that maybe we have problems in some age-groups regarding the vaccination schedule. The migration of population from other districts to Tirana and the specific situation that Albania has had during the year 1997 has created a gap in vaccine coverage of the population and so they were not protected against measles disease.
Why in Tirana? Because Tirana is the capital of Albania and the free movement of people brought a lot of persons that were not fully vaccinated.
Keywords: measles, outbreak, health center.