보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Measles vaccination is carried out for the delegation for the London Olympic Games.

- As measles is prevalent in the European area, there is a concern for infection at the London Olympic Games -

- Children and adults who haven’t been vaccinated shall receive vaccination before departing for Europe -

  Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Director: Jeon, Byung Ryul) said that measles vaccination has been being given to 500 members of the Olympic delegation per advice of the vaccination-specialized committee starting from April in order to prevent any trouble or problem as they will engage in the games during the London Olympics since measles spread throughout the European continent.   

In addition, in order to prevent the Korean Olympics cheering team and tourists from getting

measles during the London Olympic Games, KCDC urged them to make sure that they have

completed two MMR vaccine shots (measles/mumps/rubella) before traveling to Europe.  

KCDC recommended people to get at least one vaccine shot or two shots before leaving the nation if they haven’t completed two MMR vaccine shots or are not certain of whether they have had it or not.   

Measles have been prevalent since 2010 in Europe. In the case of 2010, 30,000 people in total  

had measles mostly in Bulgaria and France. In 2011, 37,000 people caught measles mainly in

France, Italy and Rumania. This year, there are around 10,000 newly occurred measles patients

mostly in Ukraine and Rumania.

  In UK, there were 10,000 measles patients in 2011 and additional 256 people have caught measles up to march this year. Given that tourists from many different countries will gather in UK due to the London Olympics, there is high possibility of them being exposed to measles. Thus, KCDC stressed the need for vaccination.

KCDC encouraged the public to get vaccination after checking whether they have been

inoculated or not for measles when traveling to countries where measles still remain as

pandemic disease such as African countries, Southeast countries as well as European

countries.

KCDC emphasized the importance of keeping personal hygiene by washing hands, etc. while traveling overseas, especially being careful in contacting patients who have fever or rash and urged people to visit medical institutions immediately if one has fever or rash after coming back home from traveling overseas. 

In the meantime, it requested medical institutions to check overseas travel records of their patients with fever or rash and immediately report to community health centers in their districts when their patient is suspected of having caught measles