Ongoing Measles Transmission in Spanish Lookout

Belize health authorities confirmed ongoing measles transmission in the Spanish Lookout community, following recent developments in the country.

Dr. Melissa Musa, Director of Public Health and Wellness, said, “So as you all are aware, on April 12th, 2025, we got confirmation of two measles cases in country. This was laboratory confirmation. The cases were immediately informed and were isolated. And these cases that we had mentioned before was associated with travel to Mexico. So these were considered imported cases.”

Following the confirmation of these initial cases, the Ministry of Health and Wellness implemented heightened surveillance and contact tracing, actively monitoring clinics and mobile units for fever and rash symptoms. Dr. Musa continued, “At that time, the Ministry of Health and Wellness did contact tracing. We did continuous monitoring and we did what’s called heightened surveillance. So actually actively in our clinics on our mobiles, looking for cases of fever and rash and sending in laboratory samples for testing on April 27th.”

As part of ongoing efforts, the Ministry issued an update on April 27th after discovering five additional linked cases, all within the same family. “We had found five additional epidemiological linked cases, so that was linked to one of the laboratory-confirmed cases, so it was in the same family. And these people were again, isolated.”

Despite sending 54 samples for testing, only the initial two cases were confirmed positive for measles. Dr. Musa noted, “Since April 27th, we have continued to do our heightened surveillance. We’ve continued to send laboratory samples for testing. 54 samples have been sent so far, and the only two laboratory confirmed were the ones that we reported on.”

A new development emerged on May 9th when another individual with fever and rash was identified at a facility in Spanish Lookout. The individual did not have a travel history but was linked to someone who had recently traveled to Mexico. Dr. Musa explained, “On Friday, the 9th of May, we were informed that there was someone with fever and rash at a facility in the Spanish Lookout area. We visited and we took samples for this person, and these samples are in the process of being run. We haven’t received the results as yet, but clinically, that person fits the clinical definition of measles.”

Further investigation revealed that the case in Spanish Lookout appeared to be locally transmitted “because it appears that it’s locally transmitted at this point because this person has no travel history. This person has nobody in the family that has traveled to Mexico, but this person is linked to someone who had recently traveled to Mexico.”