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The Health Ministry said on Saturday that it was taking measures to prevent a measles outbreak in the country following reports of a spike in cases in Europe.

Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the ministry’s director general for disease control and environmental health, said the outbreak in Europe had been reported by the World Health Organization.

“To ensure prompt and early anticipation of the spread of the disease from Europe, we’re taking steps to monitor the health of Indonesian nationals going to and returning from there,” he said.

The ministry would work with the WHO to update travelers about the latest health advisories, he said. The ministry will issue brochures at ports and airports to inform travelers about checking for symptoms of the disease, and will deploy health workers to those entry points if needed.

Tjandra said his office would work closely with the Foreign Ministry to issue advisories, through Indonesian embassies and consulates in Europe, to Indonesians there about the risk of catching the disease. The missions will be given immunization kits to inoculate Indonesians against the disease if necessary, he added.

The WHO says that 33 European countries have reported more than 6,500 measles cases this year as of April 18. Around 4,900 of them have been reported in France, which for all of last year reported only 5,090 cases.

“Belgium, for instance, has reported around 100 measles cases to date since the beginning of the year,” Tjandra said.

“In all of 2010, they only had 40 cases, so this marks a significant increase,” he said. “WHO officials believe these figures will keep rising, especially given that a lot of people will be traveling over the Easter holiday.”

Officials in Europe on Saturday kicked off European Immunization Week, which will run until Saturday, to stem the spread of the measles outbreak.

Rebecca Martin, head of WHO’s office in Copenhagen for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization, said the increase in measles cases was worrying.

“This is a lot of cases, to put it mildly,” she said to Associated Press. “In past years we’ve had very few cases. There’s been a buildup of children who have not been immunized over the years. It’s almost like a threshold. When you have enough people who have not been immunized, then outbreaks can occur.”

The WHO has found that young people between 10 and 19 have not been getting immunized as they should, she said.

“One of the problems is that people have fear of the vaccine more than the disease,” Martin said. “People forget how severe measles can be.”

Measles symptoms include fever, cough, spots on the cheeks and rashes. It is spread through close contact including coughing and sneezing and is especially serious in babies and people with weak immune systems.

Health officials estimate complications affect one in every 15 children infected, including pneumonia, seizures and encephalitis.

Antara, AP