Health Alerts

Canterbury district’s measles count increased by 1 to 35 this week after an infectious passenger arrived in Christchurch on a flight from Melbourne (on Mar 19). Auckland’s case count has risen to 9 with 4 of the 5 most recent measles infections considered close contacts of an earlier case. In Australia, the state of Victoria has reported another measles case in the past week, an infection stemming from an outbreak in the Northern Territory. There are separate alerts for both NSW and QLD, while in Western Australia, the state government announced a program providing free measles vaccines for residents born in or after 1966 who are not fully vaccinated against measles’. The media release noted that ‘while the vaccine is free, there may be a fee for the consultation’. Read more.