Strengthening cooperation system between central and local governments and enhancing the capabilities of epidemiological investigators in preparation for measles outbreaks

The four cities and provinces of the Chungcheong region have successfully concluded their first joint drill, conducted to strengthen their response capabilities in the event of a domestic outbreak of measles, a Class 2 notifiable infectious disease.

The province announced that on June 26, the '2025 Chungcheong Region (Chungnam, Daejeon, Sejong, Chungbuk) Local Government Epidemiological Investigator Drill' was held at the Government Complex Daejeon, hosted by the Chungcheong Regional Disease Response Center, with over 80 local government epidemiological investigators participating.

This drill was organized with the aim of further solidifying the cooperation system between the central government and local government epidemiological investigation teams, who are on the frontline of infectious disease response, and enhancing the capabilities of the epidemiological investigators.

The drill simulated a domestic outbreak situation caused by imported measles, covering the entire process from understanding roles between institutions, appropriate testing of suspected patients, effective epidemiological investigation, to contact tracing and management, and blocking community spread.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory infectious disease that is easily transmitted through contact with patients or through droplets from coughing or sneezing.

It is analyzed that if a person without immunity to measles comes into contact with a patient, there is over a 90% chance of infection, and one measles patient can infect an average of 12-18 people.

Although South Korea received measles elimination certification from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, patients continue to emerge through overseas inflow as measles is prevalent globally in Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

As of May 31, the number of domestic measles cases was 61, an increase of 1.3 times compared to 47 cases in the same period last year.

Overseas inflow accounted for 44 cases (72.1%) of the infection routes (41 from Vietnam, 1 from Uzbekistan, 1 from Thailand, 1 from Italy), and the remaining cases were also found to be related to overseas inflow.

Among the patients, 47 (77%) were adults aged 19 or older, and 35 reported that they had no history of measles vaccination or did not know.

Yoo Ho-yeol, head of the provincial health policy division, stated, "Epidemiological investigation is an activity important for understanding the scale of outbreaks and tracing infection sources to block and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, making actual response capability strengthening drills crucial." He added, "We will continue to protect the health and lives of residents more safely from infectious diseases through continuous and systematic participation in simulation drills."