The Epidemiological Features of the Measles Outbreak in a College in Tangshan City

To study the epidemiological features of the measles outbreak in a college in Tangshan,an epidemiological investigation was done.The measles outbreak occurred on March 26,2001 and stopped on April 26,2001.There were 20 measles patients,all of them were the college students.The patients with measles appeared in three generations and distributed mainly in the dormitory building where the first patient lived.The clinical manifestations mainly were fever and blotchy erythema,Koplik's spots appeared only in 8 cases.The epidemiological features of the measles outbreak were as follows:1. It was rare that the measles outbreak developed in college students;2. The age of onset was delayed;3. The outbreak was of typical local form and the phenomenon of generation was obvious;4. The clinical manifestations were not typical.So it is suggested that the diagnosis of suspected measles should be considered if an adult patient shows skin rash while his fever has persisted for over 3 days.For perventing measles epidemics in colleges,the new students should be vaccinated against measles.