Health Alerts

Four measles infections have now been confirmed – two in Port Moresby and one each in the provinces of New Ireland and Gulf – however no onward spread of the infection has been detected as yet. A Solomon Islands news source last week stated that from Jan 20 travellers from PNG will require proof of measles vaccination when arriving in the Islands – the other countries for which this applies were listed (including Australia) in a Dec 20 post. ReliefWeb has posted a summary of the current situation in the South Pacific with updates for Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Australia, New Zealand and Kiribati, and on Jan 9 the regional WHO office issued an update on the situation and response measures. The public health emergency declared by authorities in American Samoa in November will now continue until Feb 6 – 12 measles cases have been confirmed to date and vaccinations have been extended to include ‘undocumented immigrants’ in the territory. Elsewhere, the ECDC has published a summary of EU and global cases; there have been three confirmed cases in the Maldives and seven more are under investigation; 24 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles and two 2 deaths were reported in the Gaza Strip; the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control updated the 2019 data for Jan-Nov advising there had been almost 59,000 suspected cases in 36 states and the FCT, resulting in 289 deaths; and lastly, measles has killed at least five children in the SW province of Balochistan in Pakistan. Read more.