\u201cWith six cases of measles now confirmed across the country, and given the links to the latest ferry exposure event, it\u2019s likely there will be more cases in the community which are yet to be reported,\u201d Health NZ\u2019s public health medicine specialist Dr Sharon Sime said. <\/p>\n
These new cases are in addition to the 10 reported last week in Northland and one case in the Queenstown-Lakes district. <\/p>\n
Cases of measles have been found across New Zealand since September. <\/p>\n
Twelve cases of measles were confirmed in Northland in September and October, with a separate case being identified in Queenstown and likely linked to international travel, according to health services.<\/p>\n
In September, health authorities warned anyone who went to a production at Kerikeri High School to stay home to prevent the spread of measles.<\/p>\n
Kerikeri High School principal Mike Clent told the Herald that one student was confirmed as having measles and the school worked with the Public Health Team from Health New Zealand regarding the incident<\/p>\n
Sime told Herald NOW there is concern about the spread of measles across New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re really worried about now is that three of our cases are not linked to overseas travel,\u201d Sime said, \u201cso that means they did acquire their measles infection in the community and that could mean there was one infectious measles case that just happened to have travelled around and spread it to all three cases, or it could mean there were multiple measles cases in the community that we\u2019re not aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sime said the public needs to pay attention to news of measles spreading in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Health NZ\u2019s public health medicine specialist Dr Sharon Sime says the best way to prevent measles is through vaccination. Photo \/ Warren Buckland<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that our childhood vaccination rates are too low to prevent measles spreading in our community, and although we\u2019re making progress, we need to do better because we need 95% of people to be immune.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sime also warned there are gaps in the country\u2019s immunity, especially with older teenagers and adults thinking they are immune.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween 1969 and 1992, there was only one measles vaccine on the immunisation schedule and that means, at best, people born through those years will have only received one, and we need them to have received two. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then people born between 1992 and 2004, there were changes to the timing of the second measles vaccine that mean many people will have missed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said on Herald NOW that people need to be aware of the symptoms of measles, which include an initial fever, cough, runny nose, sore red eyes followed by a rash that starts on the face and then moves down the body. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have any symptoms like that, please stay home and contact your health provider or Healthline for advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sime said her message to the public is that the best way to prevent measles is through vaccination.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome 99% of people who have had two measles vaccines will be completely protected from measles. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat means you won\u2019t get infected, you won\u2019t get severe illness and you won\u2019t spread it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWith six cases of measles now confirmed across the country, and given the links to the latest ferry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50374,74,1558,6757,2512,1259,2223,4194,33014,47117,305,134,2251,20311,70933,111,43,139,4061,69,1118,4739,35108,14042,3940,8218,102],"class_list":["post-95741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-active","tag-after","tag-been","tag-bringing","tag-cases","tag-community","tag-confirmed","tag-cook","tag-exposure","tag-ferry","tag-have","tag-health","tag-highrisk","tag-measles","tag-nationally","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-number","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-six","tag-spread","tag-strait","tag-total","tag-warns","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}