Since the beginning of the year, nine cases of measles have been confirmed in Portugal. Virologist Pedro Simas, director of the Biomedical Research Centre and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Portuguese Catholic University, considers that these numbers should be viewed as a signal for heightened vigilance and not as evidence of a widespread outbreak, emphasizing that the situation is far from representing a loss of control in a country with high vaccination coverage levels.
Measles is considered by the scientific community as one of the infectious diseases with the highest transmission capacity. The infection manifests through high fever, cough, eye redness, and small white spots in the mouth, evolving into characteristic skin rashes that spread from the face. Transmission occurs through the air via respiratory droplets, and the disease can cause serious complications such as bacterial pneumonia, brain inflammation, and in some cases, be fatal.
The most vulnerable groups include babies under one year old, pregnant women, immunocompromised people, and unvaccinated individuals. Pedro Simas highlights that the main risk factor remains the absence of vaccination, since people with a complete vaccination schedule benefit from very high protection.
The main form of prevention is the VASPR vaccine, administered free of charge in Portugal under the National Vaccination Programme, with effectiveness close to 97% after two doses. Experts warn that vaccination coverage above 95% is necessary to protect those who cannot be vaccinated. The nine recorded cases are mostly associated with unvaccinated people or infections imported from abroad.
