Dr Nikki Turner: Immunisation Advisory Centre medical director on the likelihood of measles spreading through the country

There's growing worries measles is spreading undetected through the country.

Three new cases in Manawatu and Nelson were announced yesterday, bringing the total of current infections to four.

Health New Zealand hasn't been able to confirm how each became infected - and is warning of a potential national outbreak.

Immunisation Advisory Centre medical director, Dr Nikki Turner, says four cases might not sound scary - but measles is highly infectious.

"If we don't know it came from travel - then where did it come from? We do not want this bug spreading through our communities."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So there are concerns that measles maybe spreading across the
country undetected, and that's because four cases have been confirmed
so far, but the health authorities cannot explain how each
of them, or all of them rather, came to be infected.
Nicky Turner is the medical director at the Immunization Advisory
Center HID Nikki. Yeah, Curtis, if it's only four, how
serious is it?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah? The problem is it's so highly infectious, Like it's
way way more highly infectious than any of our other
respiratory bugs. So it spreads aerosol. If you're in the
corner of a room, you'll catch it if you're not immune.
So if we don't know it came from travel, then
where did it come from. We do not want this
bug spreading through our community. That's the problem.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
How's our immunization rad or measles?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well? The problem is this is across the whole population.
So currently it's sitting at around or seventy seven to
seventy eight percent for our young kids, which is not
great better than it was, but that's just for the
sort of two three year olds. It's across the whole
population up till people into their mid fifties. I've historically
had quite low coverage. There's loads of people walking around adolescence,

(01:05):
mid child as a mid adulthood older who may not
know if they've had vaccination or not. So that's the problem.
It doesn't just hit the little kids, it's across the
whole population.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
What do you do, Nikkia? For example, I've got a
nine month old, she's not immunized because the first jab's
not until a year. What do I do?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's right, So the vaccines were effective if you wait
till over a year. If we did have an outbreak
in your area and your child was at risk, then
we do give an extra dose. Under a year, it's
just not quite so effective. So it's not unsafe. So
and the other problem is it's a live vaccine, so
we can't give it to people with significant problems in
their immune system, you know, like people on cancer treatment

(01:45):
and things like that. So this is why it's a
community argument. We actually need to protect the community. It's
not just an individual issue.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
NICKI thanks very much appreciated, Doctor Nikki Turner, medical director
at the Immunization Advisory Center. For more from Heather Dupless,
see Allen Drive Listen Live to News Talks A B
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