- Title
- Australia: an island in a sea of measles
- Creator
- Williamson, Kirsten M.; Merritt, Tony; Durrheim, David N.
- Relation
- Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 213, Issue 3, p. 101-103.e1
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50650
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- At the beginning of 2020, Samoa was in a state of emergency due to a measles outbreak. It resulted in over 5700 cases and over 80 deaths, the majority being in children under 5 years of age.1 There were concurrent outbreaks regionally, in New Zealand, Tonga, American Samoa and Fiji. Globally, there has been a massive resurgence of measles with over 360 000 cases reported to the World Health Organization between 1 January and 31 July 2019 — almost three times the number reported over the same period for 2018. We have also seen the re-establishment of endemic measles in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, where it was previously eliminated.2 In 2019, Australia had 285 confirmed measles cases, the highest number reported since 2014, the year that it was verified by the Regional Verification Commission for Measles Elimination in the Western Pacific to have eliminated measles.3 Most infections occurred in, or were secondary to, unimmunised or underimmunised individuals returning from countries where measles is endemic or that have active outbreaks.4 Australian doctors cannot afford to become complacent about measles, particularly while large outbreaks affect popular tourist and business destinations in the region.
- Subject
- measles outbreak; World Health Organization; unimmunised; Australia; Sustainable Development Goals; SDG 7
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1426401
- Identifier
- uon:38411
- Identifier
- ISSN:0025-729X
- Language
- eng
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