Kids who brought measles into Sydney were unvaccinated by choice
The two children who returned to Australia this week with measles picked up on a family trip to Sri Lanka were unvaccinated by parental choice.
The two children who returned to Australia this week with measles picked up on a family trip to Sri Lanka were unvaccinated by parental choice.
The children travelled home on QF229, at Sydney International Airport, then on the train from the airport to Meadowbank on the morning of January 1, prompted a safety call out to anyone that may have come in contact with the children to be alert for measles symptoms until January 29.
“If you develop symptoms please call ahead to your GP so that you do not wait in the waiting room with other patients,” Dr Vicky Sheppeard, Director Communicable Diseases Branch said.
According to the World Health Organisation, measles killed 110,000 children in 2017.
One in 1000 sufferers will die and many suffer complications including the fatal complication called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare form of chronic progressive brain inflammation caused by the measles virus.
Live measles has been eliminated in Australia and most new cases are imported from overseas. NSW Health has confirmed the two Sydney children were unvaccinated by choice.
MORE FROM JANE HANSEN:
THE ‘HEALTH’ SUPPLEMENTS THAT CAN KILL YOU
AMBOS SAVE BABY IN UNEXPECTED HOMEBIRTH
Outbreaks of measles in popular tourist destinations means the risk for measles being imported into Australia at the moment is high, Dr Sheppeard said.
NSW Health has once again urged people travelling to South-East Asia to ensure they are fully vaccinated.
Measles is highly contagious and is spread in the air through coughing or sneezing by someone who is unwell.
Symptoms of measles include fever, sore eyes and a cough followed three or four days later by a red, blotchy rash spreading from the head and neck to the rest of the body.
NSW Health urges all children be vaccinated against measles to ensure they and others are safe. NSW has one of the highest child vaccination rates.
Vaccination rates for five year-old children in NSW have increased from 88 per cent in 2010 to over 95 per cent in 2017.
Fit for a Queen, but end of line as Bankstown makes way for Metro
Make way for the Metro: No less than Queen Elizabeth II happily travelled it, but it’s the end of an era as Bankstown rail line with the last heavy rail passenger trains to run between Campsie and Birrong early Saturday.
‘Daylight robbery’: Chinese developer folds, owes $40m
Almost 150 families have allegedly been left millions out of pocket over homes which were never built, after buying western Sydney land from an overseas developer now facing bankruptcy because the ‘empire has collapsed’.