Measles outbreak in refugee home

Measles in Thuringia - Four cases of illness in refugee home
According to the Thuringian Ministry of Social Affairs, five cases of measles have been registered in the eastern federal state so far this year, four of them in a refugee center. Regular Stammtisch visitors try again and again to convince other people of a perceived health risk of asylum seekers.

Five measles cases this year
According to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs, five measles cases have been registered in Thuringia so far this year, reports the news agency dpa. The ministry reported on request that four of them had recently arrived at the refugee reception center in Gera.

According to the information, children of a newly arrived family of asylum-seekers from Chechnya in the Caucasus fell ill. Therefore, the institution is currently dimming no new refugees. In addition, the responsible health authority has imposed a temporary relocation.

In Thuringia, five measles cases have so far been registered, four of them in a refugee center. The disease not only affects children. (Image: Trueffelpix / fotolia.com)

Measles not only affects children
Measles are not a harmless childhood disease as is often assumed. They are highly contagious and weaken the immune system. The disease usually begins with fever, conjunctivitis, runny nose and cough. According to health experts, around one in ten patients in Germany experience additional complications such as otitis media, bronchitis or pneumonia. In Thuringia there had been the last big outbreak in 2015.

Refugees are at risk
Although the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has long since made it clear that there is no health risk from refugees, right-wing Stammtisch brothers do not stop conjuring up alleged risks. Rather, asylum seekers are an endangered group because they often come from nations where the health system is no longer or only poorly functioning due to war and crisis.

After a rapid spread of measles in a Berlin refugee center in October 2014, experts emphasized that it was the lack of vaccination protection of many Berlin that the disease continued to spread. (Ad)