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Two Danes contract measles on skiing holiday
Christian Wenande
February 12th, 2019
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This article is more than 5 years old.
The French Alps apparently has more to offer than pristine slopes
Not only is measles unpleasant, it can also kill (photo: CDC/Dr. Heinz F Eichenwald)
According to the State Serum Institute (SSI), two adult Danes have contracted measles while on a skiing holiday in the Val Thorens area of the French Alps.
SSI urges all people travelling to Val Thorens to make sure they are vaccinated before leaving, if they haven’t already had the illness.
“It fits with the information we have received that an outbreak of measles has occured in precisely that area,” Peter Henrik Andersen, a doctor with SSI, told DR Nyheder.
READ MORE: Measles resurgent in Europe, would-be travellers warned
Spreading fast
The two Danes infected are a woman from Rudersdal and a young man from Funen – neither of whom were vaccinated nor had had the illness as a child.
Measles was first introduced into the Danish child vaccination program in 1987, so there is a considerable proportion of the population that haven’t been vaccinated for the disease.
The extremely contagious illness is officially eradicated in Denmark, but there are more and more cases popping up following the recent rise of an anti-vaccine movement across some parts of the world.
In fact, last year almost 83,000 Europeans were infected with measles – three times as many as the year before and 15 times as many as in 2016. The illness is particularly prevalent in eastern and southern Europe.
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