MEasles Risk

Make sure you have had 2 doses of measles vaccine (MMR) before travel as cases are up in many areas around the world. If you were born prior to 1969 you should be protected against it as the virus was circulating prior to then. Those born since then should be sure they have had 2 doses as one does not protect everyone. Currently the MMR vaccine is given at 15 months and 4 years of age. Unfortunately, the false autism scare seriously knocked confidence in the vaccine so many people were not vaccinated and in order to keep measles rates low vaccination rates of 95% are needed. The vaccine is a live vaccine so pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems should not have it. Live vaccines should be given together or 28 days apart so don’t have it just before getting a yellow fever vaccine or the shingles vaccine.
Venezuela has recorded 1613 measles cases and 44 deaths this year and other countries in Latin America have cases linked to Venezuela. For example, Brazil has had nearly 700 cases in 2018 and Argentina has had cases despite not having any local measles since 2000. This year in the UK 757 cases of measles have been reported compared with 274 cases reported in the whole of 2017 and 3 deaths due to measles have been reported in France this year.
Returning travellers bring measles back to their home countries and start out breaks. This year an unknown person must have passed through Queenstown airport when infectious with the virus as a cluster of cases among people who had been in the airport at the same time as each other developed measles. The same thing has been noted in Japan a number of times recently including 91 cases diagnosed in Okinawa after an infectious person visited the island.