Measles outbreak hits Beijing office building, prompting emergency vaccinations

A measles outbreak hit a single Beijing office building, with at least 23 people infected, according to the city’s health authorities.

The Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says it has ordered quarantines and emergency vaccinations at the Kaiheng Centre in downtown Beijing since receiving reports of infections last Thursday.

The building houses the Beijing branch of state-owned Bank of China, the fourth largest bank in China in terms of total assets.  

“To prevent the epidemic from spreading, [we have] already performed vaccinations for the 3,462 workers in the building,” the disease centre said in a statement on its website today.

The building that became a measles hot spot is located in the Chaoyangmen subdistrict, an area with many office towers.

The Chinese capital has seen 68 measles cases in the first three weeks of January.

But the centre said it had brought the outbreak at the office building “under control” and that there were no new cases from there since Monday.

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory system, causing high fever, red spots on the body and coughing. Beijing reported a total of 2,391 measles cases last year.

In the United States, a recent outbreak of measles stemming from the Disneyland theme park in California has also caused concern.

More than 100 cases of measles have been reported in a number of US states and local health officials fear the number of infection will continue to rise.