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Download AudioA vaccine expert warns New Zealand is not in good shape to handle another measles outbreak.
Albany Senior High School was closed on Monday after it was discovered a student had attended for two days while infectious with measles.
The University of Auckland Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris says that was an appropriate action.
She says one person can infect 12 to 18 others before they start showing symptoms.
Dr Petousis-Harris says low MMR vaccination rates, especially among some Māori communities, raise the risk of an outbreak.
“There are some communities out there, particularly Māori, where we have got coverage rates for this vaccine down to around 30 percent. We need it to be 95 percent to stop this thing spreading,” she says.
The MMR vaccine is part of the childhood immunisation schedule for children at 12 months and 15 months of age, and many New Zealand adolescents and young adults, aged between 15 and 30 years, may also need a catch-up vaccination because of historical gaps in vaccination coverage.
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