{"id":134595,"date":"2025-09-11T06:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134595\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T06:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:22:08","slug":"measles-outbreak-declared-in-cairns-after-cases-linked-to-bali-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134595\/","title":{"rendered":"Measles outbreak declared in Cairns after cases linked to Bali travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health officials are urging travellers to south-east Asia to be vaccinated against measles as an outbreak is declared in Far North Queensland.<\/p>\n

Further cases of measles are expected in Cairns.<\/p>\n

The city’s latest confirmed case of measles is a close contact of someone who was diagnosed after arriving in Far North Queensland from Bali.<\/p>\n

Cairns Public Health Unit director Jacqueline Murdoch said there would be a “couple of hundred” close contacts.<\/p>\n

“This case was an unvaccinated contact of our case from last week and we do expect further cases in this outbreak,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Jacqueline Murdoch is urging people to check their vaccination status. (ABC News: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

The latest case of measles is the fourth in Cairns this year.<\/p>\n

The first three were all confirmed to have measles after arriving from Bali.<\/p>\n

“There’s a number of measles outbreaks at the moment in south-east Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, including Bali,” Dr Murdoch said.<\/p>\n

“If anyone is going to these places over the school holidays or in the upcoming months, please see your GP and make sure you have sufficient immunity to measles.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want anyone bringing measles back to Cairns and spreading it on our community.”<\/p>\n

Health officials have urged the public to monitor for signs and symptoms, particularly if they attended the following locations at these specific times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mad Monkeys Waterfront backpackers, Saturday, September 6 \u2014 Wednesday, September 10Rufus Restaurant, Saturday, September 6 (3pm \u2014 10.30pm)Cairns GP Superclinic, Wednesday September 10 (11.30am \u2014 12pm)<\/p>\n

A case of measles has also been confirmed in Townsville after a traveller arrived from overseas with the virus.<\/p>\n

Townsville Hospital and Health Service acting chief medical officer Jason Yates said the infected Townsville case had recently returned from overseas.<\/p>\n

Dr Yates said the individual had visited Townsville’s CBD, Castletown Shopping Centre and Strand while infectious.<\/p>\n

“If you were in those areas, please try to keep yourself away from the general public, particularly if you’ve got those symptoms,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Yates said the Townsville case was the first confirmed locally in about five years.<\/p>\n

“It is something that we effectively kept pretty low in the community and vaccination is one of the major reasons for that,” he said.<\/p>\n

A full list of exposure sites is on the Queensland Health website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cairns and Townsville cases are not linked.<\/p>\n

See a doctor but call ahead<\/p>\n

Measles is one of the most infectious viruses and can spread quickly.<\/p>\n

It usually starts as a flu-like illness with symptoms that include fever and tiredness.<\/p>\n

\"Gloved<\/p>\n

Experts say a vaccination rate of 95 per cent is required for herd immunity against measles. (Reuters: Annie Rice)<\/p>\n

“A few days later people develop a red blotchy rash which starts from the head and spreads down the body,” Dr Murdoch said.<\/p>\n

Dr Murdoch said unvaccinated people, including babies, and immunocompromised people were at greatest risk.<\/p>\n

She urged anyone with symptoms to seek medical treatment.<\/p>\n

“Please do phone ahead and make the healthcare provider you’re seeing aware so you don’t put any other people at risk in the clinic or emergency department,” Dr Murdoch said.<\/p>\n

“We have good coverage of measles vaccination but it’s really important to be vaccinated with two doses of measles-containing vaccine, especially if you’re travelling overseas.”<\/p>\n

Dr Murdoch said signs would be put up in backpackers’ hostels.<\/p>\n

More vaccination needed<\/p>\n

The MMR vaccine protects against measles but its first dose is not administered to babies until they turn 1.<\/p>\n

Griffith University virologist Professor Nigel McMillan said a vaccination rate of 95 per cent was required for herd immunity against measles.<\/p>\n

Across Queensland, 90.3 per cent of two-year-olds are fully vaccinated against measles, according to the latest federal health data.<\/p>\n

\"Nigel<\/p>\n

Nigel McMillan says vaccination rates are dropping in parts of Queensland. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

“What we’re seeing now particularly around parts of Noosa and parts of north Queensland is vaccination rates dropping below 90 and, in some cases, nearly to 85 per cent,” Dr McMillan said.<\/p>\n

“While that’s really high, that’s actually below the level we need it to stop it spreading in the community.”<\/p>\n

Other parts of Australia have recorded locally transmitted cases of measles this year, including Perth and Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Dr McMillan said while the transmission rates were small, “this is really new territory for us”.<\/p>\n

“We’ve not had this sort of local transmission on this sort of scale before.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials are urging travellers to south-east Asia to be vaccinated against measles as an outbreak is declared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,93042,93040,93041,35770,137,17974,26162,93044,93043,3851],"class_list":["post-134595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cairns-and-hinterland-hospital-and-health-service","tag-cairns-public-health-unit","tag-dr-jacqui-murdoch","tag-griffith-university","tag-health","tag-infectious-disease","tag-measles","tag-professor-nigel-mcmillan","tag-townsville-hospital-and-health-service","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}