MEASLES CASE ATTENDED SOUTH AUCKLAND PRACTICE AND MIDDLEMORE ED

28.2.2019

• ARPHS is contacting patients who were in the Clendon Medical Centre waiting room on 19, 20 and 21 February when a measles case presented.
• The case also waited and was assessed at Middlemore Emergency Department on 21 February and patients there are being contacted.
• The person flew in from overseas but was not infectious while on the flight. 

Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) is tracing Clendon Medical Centre patients who shared a waiting room on 19, 20 and 21 February with a person who has confirmed measles.

The Service is also contacting patients who were at Middlemore Hospital Emergency Department on 21 February around 5.00pm when the case was assessed.

This is the only confirmed case of measles in the Auckland region at the moment. There is no evidence to date of community spread and this is not related to the Otago or Canterbury cases.

The exposures have been limited to these two locations. Any further cases are likely to appear from today onwards.

The Ministry has released advice today - that people travelling overseas should be fully immunised against measles before they go.  In particular, the Ministry recommends that infants aged 6-15 months travelling to countries where there is a current measles outbreak be given MMR vaccine before they travel.

MMR can be given to infants aged 6-11 months if there is a high risk of exposure to measles. The vaccine given to this age group can be entered on the National Immunisation Register using your PMS high risk MMR vaccine option leaving the scheduled 15 month and 4 year MMR vaccine still be to given in the future as per the Immunisation Schedule.

 These younger infants will need two further doses of MMR as per the Immunisation Schedule as the effectiveness of the vaccine is lower in this age group. The additional vaccination at 6-11 months of age is funded as it meets eligibility criteria 3 and 4 for the funding of the MMR vaccine in the Pharmaceutical Schedule - https://www.pharmac.govt.nz/wwwtrs/ScheduleOnline.php?osq=priorix.

The scheduled 15 month MMR dose can be given as early as 12 months and is funded as usual.

Please use this case as an opportunity to promote MMR vaccination to any patients who have not been fully vaccinated.

ARPHS has released a media statement to inform the public that there is now a case in Auckland and ask people to catch up on MMR vaccinations, given the number of international outbreaks currently.