Could be serious

Measles, discovered in a Victoria University student, can have serious and potentially fatal complications.
Victoria ran a clinic last Friday for students to be checked and update their MMR vaccinations. All classmates of the infected student have been contacted via email and encouraged to monitor themselves for early symptoms, which include fever, runny nose, cough, sore red eyes and white spots on the inside of the mouth.
Student Health is also advising students to check their vaccination status or talk to the health clinic or their private GPs if they are unsure whether they need the jab.
Measles cases in New Zealand generally come from overseas, as there’s hardly any measles here, explains Dr Margot McLean from Wellington Regional Public Health, the organisation managing the outbreak at Victoria University.
“If only one or two people get measles it’s not enough to start an outbreak like we’ve seen in New Zealand, but it happened it 2009 and it’s happened again this year. There have been more cases overseas so more chances of people getting it here, which has started this outbreak,” says McLean.
Vaccination rates have decreased since 1989 when a since widely discredited article published in a medical journal The Lancet established a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Author of the article, Dr Andrew Wakefield, has since been struck off the UK medical register, though the conviction that it is unsafe to immunise is widespread. McLean says that rates are increasing again, as complications from catching the disease are serious.
“There are one in 1000 deaths from measles,” she says, “Wellingtonians need to know it’s a nasty infection.”
The MMR vaccination is free to New Zealanders. It is recommended children be vaccinated at 15 months and again at four years, but adults who have not been vaccinated should be aware it’s never too late.
The Victoria student, who was admitted to Wellington Hospital, listed as being in a stable condition, has now passed the infectious period and will soon be clear to return to class and sit exams.









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