{"id":528589,"date":"2026-03-09T09:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528589\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:59:21","slug":"dangerous-disease-sparks-state-health-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528589\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous disease sparks state health alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health authorities in Western Australia have issued a new alert after four new cases of the highly infectious disease were identified.<\/p>\n

The current exposure site in WA sits at five \u2013 including two addresses in ARB Wangara, Dome Cafe in Wanneroo, St John of God Geraldton Hospital and Geraldton University Centre.<\/p>\n

The new alert follows large spikes in measles cases across NSW and Victoria in February.<\/p>\n

As of now there are 72 exposure sites across NSW and 45 in Victoria, with both state\u2019s exposure sites including domestic and international airports.<\/p>\n

\"Travellers<\/p>\n

Travellers through Sydney and Melbourne airport have been put on high alert after overseas outbreak of measles. Picture: Instagram \/ Perth Airport<\/p>\n

In Sydney, one of the cases was a patient returning from Jakarta and in Victoria, one a patient returning from Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany countries around the world are experiencing measles outbreaks. Anyone planning overseas travel should see their general practitioner or a travel doctor to discuss appropriate vaccinations prior to travel,\u201d director of communicable disease control directorate, Paul Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

Measles is airborne and highly infectious and is spread when an infectious person coughs or sneezes.<\/p>\n

\"GENERICS\"<\/p>\n

Two doses of MMR vaccines can protect you from measles by 97 per cent. Picture:NewsWire\/ Monique Harmer<\/p>\n

Symptoms include fever-like conditions, such as a runny nose, sore eyes, and a cough, and are usually followed days later by a red and blotchy rash that can spread from the head to the rest of the body.<\/p>\n

The NSW government has launched a personalised childhood vaccination schedule tool for parents amid a sudden surge in the highly-infectious disease measles across the states.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Ryan Park said it was important for parents to be aware and proactive with their children\u2019s vaccination schedules.<\/p>\n

The new tool creates a customised vaccination schedule based on the National Immunisation Schedule with the due dates dependent on the child\u2019s date of birth.<\/p>\n

The scheduling has been carefully curated by experts to ensure that children have the highest level of protection.<\/p>\n

\"Measles<\/p>\n

Measles appear as flat red spots and appear blotchy. Picture: GEORGE FREY \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA \/ AFP<\/p>\n

With the tool, parents will receive a reminder one week prior to the vaccination due date along with an \u201cadd to calendar\u201d feature.<\/p>\n

More than 90 per cent of children are fully immunised with Victoria sitting at 92 per cent.<\/p>\n

WA is one of the states below the measles herd immunity threshold of more than 92 per cent.<\/p>\n

Just over 90 per cent of children are fully immunised in WA as of now.<\/p>\n

Health authorities say that these rates need to climb further to protect the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health authorities in Western Australia have issued a new alert after four new cases of the highly infectious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,262743,137,129410,500,17974,26162,129523,262741,262742,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-528589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-geraldton-university-centre","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-authorities","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-infectious-disease","15":"tag-measles","16":"tag-measles-cases","17":"tag-overseas-travel","18":"tag-vaccination-schedule","19":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528589","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=528589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}