Measles for travellers
Dr John Carnie, former Chief Health Officer discusses the need for travellers to protect themselves against measles.
He also discusses what symptoms to look out for so people can recognise and take steps to prevent the spread of this highly infectious disease.
Measles is viral infection and it is a very infectious condition, so easily transmitted from person to person.
It used to be a disease that was highly prevalent in Australia many years ago. It is no longer prevalent. However, that is not the case in many parts of the world, and so it is still a risk for travellers mainly.
People think that measles is just another childhood infection - it is not. It can cause lots of problems in young children and even in adults. You can get complications such as ear infections, pneumonia, brain infections. It does result in complications and it does result in a lot of people needing to be hospitalised.
The first symptoms are similar to the common cold, so you have a runny nose, cough, sore throat, fever, you might have red eyes or conjunctivitis.
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