New cases of measles detected in Melbourne days before Christmas

A Woolworths store is among the list of exposure sites after a highly infectious disease was recorded in a major Australian city.

Melburnians are being warned to watch out for a new highly infectious disease that is understood to have entered the community after an individual returned to the city from India.

The Victorian Department of Health said one new case of measles had been detected in a 41-year-old who was infectious on their arrival at Melbourne airport on December 12, with the case the sixth measles infection in Victoria since the beginning of the year.

Of the 13 exposure sites, one includes the arrival gate at Melbourne airport, while six are located in Moonee Ponds, a suburb in Melbourne’s inner north.

An individual infected with measles returned to Australia on December 12 via Melbourne airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Measles, which was largely eradicated from Australia due to high vaccination rates, is a highly infectious viral disease that spreads quickly with close contact.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton urged people to seek medical attention if they developed symptoms such as a runny nose, red eyes and a cough, followed by a fever and a rash.

“People can develop pneumonia and other serious complications from measles, and particularly children may need to be hospitalised,” Professor Sutton said.

A train on the Craigieburn line is another exposure site. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

He particularly heeded people to get tested and to isolate if necessary if they have developed symptoms after returning from overseas and said people travelling should get an MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine if they have not had two MMR vaccines in the past.

The list of exposure sites includes Melbourne airport’s international arrivals, Woolworths and Aldi in Moonee Ponds, Moonee Ponds Central Shopping Centre, buses and trains on the Craigieburn line.

For a full list of exposure sites and times, click here.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton urged people travelling to make sure they were up-to-date with their MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccinations. NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

On Tuesday, Australia’s chief health officer Paul Kelly urged Australians to ensure they were sufficiently vaccinated against polio and measles, saying that immunisation rates for these diseases had fallen in popular hotspots for Australian tourists, including Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

Measles outbreaks have occurred in Europe, the UK and North and South America in recent years.

Originally published as New cases of measles detected in Melbourne days before Christmas