Two Cases of Vaccine-Associated Measles in Daegu, South Korea, 2019

ABSTRACT

Korea was verified as a measles-free country by the World Health Organization in 2014;however, some imported measles cases and related outbreaks were reported. As the incidence of wild-type measles decreases in measles-free countries, the proportion of vaccine-associated measles is increasing. Wild-type measles is highly contagious and requires follow-up and management of the contacts, whereas vaccine-related measles is not contagious and does not require follow-up intervention. Therefore, measles genotyping should be performed to reliably distinguish between them in suspected patients. Two patients with vaccine-associated measles were confirmed through genotyping at Daegu Fatima Hospital. In Korea, there are only a few reports of vaccine-associated measles confirmed through genotyping; thus, we report recent vaccine-associated measles cases, emphasizing the need for genotyping.