Have you ever played the game Plague Inc?
If you have, you know it is really hard to infect Iceland!
“An 11-month-old child was diagnosed with measles last weekend. The virus is thought to have entered into the country via a person that came to Iceland from the Philippines last February 14 on an Icelandair flight, the Directorate of Health has stated.”
Eleven Month Old Child Infected by Measles
Not so much in real life…
Measles in Iceland
With the rise of measles cases in so many places in the world, it appears that even Iceland isn’t immune to the virus.
All it takes is someone with measles getting on a plane:
“Since 2016, measles cases have repeatedly occurred on board aircraft passing through Iceland. The first such case occurred on board an Icelandair plane in August 2016 in a child in transit in Iceland on its way from Canada to England. One unvaccinated Icelander on the same plane became ill of measles.
In the spring of 2017, a nine-month-old child became ill after returning to Iceland from Thailand. The baby’s twin brother became ill of measles two weeks later in Iceland. The brothers were unvaccinated because of their young age. By the end of October 2017, an Icelandic resident who had been staying in Bangladesh became ill with mild symptoms after returning to Iceland. He had a history of adequate vaccination against measles and the antibody response was potent, leading to mild non-characteristic morbidity syndrome.
In May of this year, a case of measles was confirmed on board an Icelandair plane flying from Germany to Canada with a transit in Iceland and again, in July, in an individual travelling from England to the United States with WOW air, also transiting in Iceland. No Icelanders became infected in these airplanes.”
EPI-ICE. October 2018
Why aren’t even more cases of measles in Iceland?
Most folks in Iceland are vaccinated and protected!
They likely need to do a better job of getting kids an early MMR if they are going to be traveling out of the country though.
More on Measles in Iceland
- VAXOPEDIA – Immunization Schedules from Other Countries
- VAXOPEDIA – Everything You Need to Know About the Measles Vaccine
- VAXOPEDIA – More Measles Myths
- VAXOPEDIA – Where Is Measles on the Rise?
- Eleven Month Old Child Infected by Measles
- Staðfest mislingasmit
- Annar einstaklingur greinist með mislinga á Íslandi
- Childhood Vaccination Programme
- Study – Public opinion on childhood immunisations in Iceland.
- Vaccination against cervical cancer (HPV) starts in Iceland in September 2011
- Autism prevalence in Iceland 1.2%