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NSW is on the verge of experiencing the worst measles outbreak in five years after two young travelers from the state's north coast have become the latest victims of this highly contagious disease.
"Unusual" numbers triggered a warning from health authorities and immunization advocates, who pointed out that measles can lead to serious or even life-threatening complications.
Travelers in their twenties, who had not been vaccinated, were reportedly exposed during their vacation in the Philippines last month.
The couple was sick and contagious during the Singapore Scoot TR6 flight to the Gold Coast on March 29th.
They then visited stores in Pottsville and Cabarita, a medical center in the Murwillumbah Emergency Department and Tweed Hospital.
The North Coast Public Health Bureau urges residents of these areas to remain alert to the symptoms of measles – fever, sore eyes and cough, followed by a bright red rash – over the next couple of days .
Preventive injections can be administered up to six days after exposure.
As the numbers show, NSW Health follows a busy year with 33 cases of measles reported in the state since the Christmas period.
Last year, 19 residents were diagnosed in the state, up from 30 in 2017, 18 in 2016 and nine in 2015. "We had an unusual number this year," said Dr. Jeremy McAnulty, Director of Health Protection at NSW Health.
This outbreak has been blamed on travelers who have been infected abroad and brought the disease back to Australia. Epidemics have recently broken out in the United States, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Dr. McAnulty warned that people traveling abroad during the next school holidays were vulnerable if they had not received two measles vaccines during their lifetime.
"You can not really say that an overseas country is safe because people in the plane could travel to different parts of the world," Dr. McAnulty said.
"Measles is probably the most contagious disease that exists.You do not have to be near someone to catch it."
The vaccine is free and effective even if it is administered on the day of departure. Babies can receive a vaccine from nine months if their parents plan to travel, even though vaccination is usually at 12 months.
For Cecily Johnson, a former pediatric nurse on NSW's North Coast, every measles outbreak is overwhelming. His daughter, Laine, contracted measles at the age of 10 months.
Seven years later, she developed subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a terminal illness that made her blind and unable to walk or talk. She died in 1995 at the age of 12 years.
"It was horrible," Ms. Johnson recalled. One of his last words was, "Mom, let me just see you again."
Johnson said most people were unaware that measles could be a "time bomb," with SSPE sleeping an average of seven years in the body.
"Here on the north coast … it's the worst region of Australia for not being vaccinated," she said. "They go:" it will not be my child "But you know what? I would not have thought it either. This beautiful, healthy child I did not expect never."
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