The Travel Doctor
Traveller's medical & vaccination centre
Health Alerts
Travel Doctor TMVC provides the latest health and travel alerts, including updates from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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Measles Alert for Angola, Namibia and South Africa
Sunday, 6 September, 2009
Spreading from Angola, where last week there were 99 cases of measles diagnosed in the southern Cunene province, a measles outbreak has occurred in northern Namibia. This has led to cross-border talks on how to prevent and respond effectively to the outbreak.
At the same time the health department in South Africa has urged the public and medical practitioners to be aware of measles symptoms and for parents to get their children vaccinated after a reported outbreak in Gauteng (which includes the Johannesburg/Pretoria areas).Random cases have been reported in other parts of the country. Vigorous efforts are being made to immunise or re-immunise schoolchildren.
These are serious outbreaks in southern Africa which appear to be
spreading, as elsewhere, as a consequence of localised resistance to
vaccination and incomplete coverage of the population.
Travellers to southern Africa should make sure that immunisation is complete.
