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CDC via Getty Images 
CDC via Getty Images
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(CNN) – Two babies aged 8 and 11 months were infected during a measles outbreak in Australia as the highly contagious disease returns to East Asia and the Pacific.
Health authorities in the state of New South Wales have stated that infants have probably contracted the disease in public places.
They are too young to be vaccinated, CNN Vicky Sheppeard, NSW Health's Director of Communicable Diseases, told CNN. The standard vaccination schedule in Australia starts at 12 months. Infants lose their maternal immunity around the age of about 6 months and are therefore vulnerable for about six months.
NSW Health stated that the youngest child was likely infected in the central Haymarket area of Sydney between March 26 and 30, while the 11-month-old would have been infected in the northern suburbs of New York. Eastwood between March 23rd and 30th. .
Sheppeard said that the sites "do not pose a permanent risk" of infection, but that anyone likely to be susceptible to the disease should contact a doctor. The state has seen 23 confirmed cases of measles so far this year.
"Local public health units work directly with medical offices and hospitals to follow other patients present at the same time as infants and offer appropriate preventive treatment," she said.
If people "develop symptoms, please call your doctor in advance to make sure you do not wait in the waiting room with other patients," she added.
Sheppeard told CNN that people who do not realize they are not vaccinated – those born after the launch of a national immunization program in 1966 but before the creation of a national registry – may be problematic as their families may have missed one or two doses. the program.
The state provides free vaccines to people born after 1966 if the documents relating to previous vaccinations are insufficient, she said.
"MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine is a safe and effective measles protection and is free of charge for people born during or after 1966 who have not already received two doses. are not sure to have already received two doses, it's safe to have another one. "
Disturbing trends
Measles is a highly contagious and vaccine-preventable respiratory disease characterized by an eruption of red, flat spots.
The typical symptoms of measles, including high fever, rashes all over the body, a stuffy nose and red eyes, usually go away without treatment in two or three weeks, although a serious case can result in death. .
"Measles is spreading like wildfire," said Takeshi Kasai, regional director of the World Health Organization for the Western Pacific. "This is the most contagious human disease and it is very effective at searching and spreading even within small groups of people who are not immune."
The WHO notes that Australia was one of nine Western Pacific countries to have eliminated measles – using a three-year period "with no prolonged local transmission" as the definition of the disease. elimination.
"In recent months, we have seen how quickly and easily measles can return to communities where few children have been vaccinated," Kasai said.
Measles case in the Western Pacific in 2018 increased by 250%. More than two – thirds of them were in the Philippines, where 23,000 cases were also reported, with 333 deaths since the beginning of the year. Most of the victims were under five years old.
Vaccination works by providing "group immunity" – the process by which an infectious disease can be easily disseminated in a community because enough people are immunized there.
"Herd immunity protects those who can not be vaccinated, such as infants and people whose immune systems are weakened," Sheppeard said.
If collective immunity is weakened, people who may contract the virus may be at risk of infection. The disease can be imported into areas previously free of measles from countries with cases of infection.
Sheppeard said that out of 23 cases this year, three were from deliberately unvaccinated children, but that the state "has 95% vaccination rates in all generations" enough to create collective immunity against measles.
Tips around the world
In the United States, 387 cases of measles have been reported since the beginning of the year, according to figures released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the second highest number of cases since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. the highest number was 667 in 2014.
Last week, in an effort to contain a measles outbreak that began in October, Rockland County, New York, banned unvaccinated people under the age of 18 from visiting public places.
Health officials said the proliferation of anti-vaccine rhetoric has contributed to an increase in the number of measles cases and other vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States.
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