Antwerp hospitals see alarming increase in the number of children with measles: « We are worried » (Antwerp)
For the past three months, the number of children with measles at ZAS has been higher than in the whole of 2024. « I had not expected it so dramatically, » says Daan Van Brusselen, children’s infectiologist at ZAS Antwerp. « Last night four children were added and admitted to the ZAS Sint-Vincentius, in the middle of the city. That sets the counter to fifteen in total, which is more than normal in a whole year. It seems like an explosive increase. »
Two children were admitted to the intensive care department. « Those are very high numbers, so we are seriously worried. This is an outbreak that we have not seen in many years. The outbreak seems to be mainly situated in the middle of the city. »
This year (up to and including 15 March), the Care Department has already registered 47 measles throughout Flanders. For comparison: 120 infections were registered in the whole of 2024. In the years before, only 30 to 50 infections per year involved.
Insufficiently vaccinated
« Especially in the province of Antwerp, many children were infected with measles. It concerns forty percent of the cases in Flanders, good for nineteen patients. The fact that this mainly concerns young children indicates insufficient vaccination. »
You can get measles if you have not had measles and have not been vaccinated or incomplete against measles. Those who have been vaccinated twice are not at risk. Anyone between 30 and 45 years old is recommended to check the vaccination status. As a child, this age group often received only one vaccination.
More contagious than Covid
The measles virus spreads through small drops that end up in the air through coughing, but also through sneezing and talking loudly. People can breathe in these drops and get infected in this way. The drops also hang in the air of the room where someone was present with measles. That is similar to the way in which the COVID virus spreads.
However, measles is much more contagious than Covid. In measles, one infected someone can infect no fewer than twelve to eighteen non-vaccinees. With the flu, one infected person infected an average of 1.2 to 1.5 others.
Measles can be fatal
The first symptoms of measles are high fever, coughing and red, inflamed eyes. « They start one to two weeks after the contamination. Three to seven days after the start of the first symptoms, Raw Running Rash appears behind the ears, which then spreads over the body. Complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea or even brain inflammation can occur. »
« You can also die in Belgium from measles. Recently, two children aged six and eight years who were not vaccinated in the United States. If you have the bad luck to get a brain inflammation, you can also have neurological damage afterwards. »
