Source: Radio New Zealand
Health New Zealand has confirmed five new cases of measles. 123rf
A paediatrician is worried that a new wave of measles cases means the disease is spreading undetected.
Health New Zealand (HNZ) confirmed five new cases on Wednesday – one person in Dunedin, one in Waikato and three people in Auckland.
It said it brought the number of reported infections since 8 October to 27, with 22 people no longer infectious, and expected there could be more.
The new cases were as yet unlinked to others, with HNZ’s public health medicine specialist Dr Matt Reid saying they were currently being investigated to establish any links to previous reports or locations of interest.
Chairperson of the Immunisation Taskforce Dr Owen Sinclair said the new cases were concerning, as measles was a deadly disease.
“We should be really worried, as I think this is a sign that this is spreading.
“This would be highly unlikely to be spontaneous international visitors [that’s] occurring, this is transmission that’s happening within our community.”
It was fortunate that sick children weren’t flooding hospitals, he said, but he maintained it was only a matter of time if the spread continued.
“There is no specific cure for measles once you get it, so the only way to stop the spread is to ensure that we have extremely high rates of measles vaccination.”
Sinclair said if cases were being seen in highly vaccinated populations, the spread could just fizzle out, but cases in Waikato and Auckland were a worry.
“The last outbreak was centred in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) – it started in west Auckland and then moved to south Auckland so those populations are vulnerable.
“And there are also high numbers of, particularly Māori, in Waikato that have very low rates of immunisations.
“It’s a great concern, we really don’t want it affecting those populations.”
Dr Nikki Turner, Immunisation Advisory Centre principle medical advisor, said while disappointing, the new cases were unsurprising.
“It’s not totally unpredictable, but it’s a bit of a bummer.
“The health services have put a huge amount of effort into trying to contact trace around the previous cases, but of course you have to wait for the next two weeks, the next four weeks to check that they haven’t infected somebody else.”
Turner said the spread was likely driven by domestic and overseas travel.
“I think the general problem is that New Zealanders travel, and we travel a lot.
“So these cases could either be new ones that have come in internationally – because there’s a lot of measles internationally – or they’re just caught from people travelling around the country who were unaware they were incubating measles.”
She said children were at the highest risk of becoming seriously ill with measles, so the priority was to raise vaccination rates in young children and infants.
But she said there were also unknown numbers of mid-life adults who missed out on being immunised when they were younger.
“It’s a call to action for everyone.
“If you’re not sure you’ve had two vaccines and you’re under the age of about mid-50s, then go and check. Basically, we’re all just travelling around a lot and you can carry this virus before you know you’ve got it and you can spread it.
“It is so virulent.”
Sinclair urged people to view vaccination as positive.
“Please just make a little bit of effort to do it. You could save your life, your child’s life, and someone else’s life.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
