Knox County residents signed up for a two-week charity trip to the Philippines in March, community newspaper Mansfield Journal reported Friday.
The aid mission by the Berlin, Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) is suspected to have brought the four Knox County residents in contact with Filipinos infected with measles.
According to news website The Global Dispatch, the trip was the first of a series of trips planned by CAM. The disease has since spread to 14 other persons in the community.
According to Amish culture website Amish America, many vaccination rates among members of the sect, whose members base their morals and way of life on the Bible. The four residents who traveled to the Philippines had not been vaccinated against measles, Mansfield News Journal said.
Because of the outbreak, members of community have brought their children to get vaccinated against the disease, NBC News reported.
In January, the Department of Health declared measles outbreaks in five cities in Metro Manila.
The DOH had recorded 744 confirmed cases of measles in Metro Manila between January 1 and December 14, 2013.
A total of 1,724 measles cases, meanwhile, had been reported across the country, with 21 patients dying of the disease.
Singapore also recently warned its citizens of the risk of catching measles in the Philippines after at least 23 who traveled to the country tested positive for the disease.
Earlier this month, the Singapore Ministry of Health advised travelers, including Filipinos living in Singapore, to get vaccinated before traveling to the Philippines. — Rie Takumi/JDS, GMA News
