Wellington, February 24 (IANS). Two new cases of measles have been reported in Auckland, New Zealand, which are linked to recent foreign travel. Both the infected are from the same house. The special thing is that New Zealand had announced only three weeks ago that there is no measles crisis in the country now.
After the cases came to light, the department has started contact tracing. The ‘Location of Interest’ (tracked location) includes flight SQ281 from Singapore and Auckland International Airport. Officials have appealed to people to take precautions as measles is a serious and contagious disease.
The passengers of the flight that came from Singapore on February 17 are being contacted. Health New Zealand (New Zealand’s health department) said that the emergency department of Waitakere Hospital is also a ‘location of interest’. People have been advised to remain alert and contact a doctor if symptoms appear.
According to Xinhua News Agency, there was an outbreak of measles in New Zealand in September 2025, which was considered over at the beginning of this month (February 2026). However, the Health Department had warned that there is still a danger in the country due to the decreasing rate of vaccination and foreign travel.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that spreads through the air, primarily when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The virus can survive for up to 2 hours in the air or on infected surfaces. The disease is easily spread by breathing, touching contaminated surfaces, or coming into close contact (such as talking). It can happen to people of all ages but is most common in children.
The easiest way to avoid this is vaccination. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight the virus.
Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963 and mass vaccination began, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and resulted in approximately 2.6 million deaths each year.
Despite having a safe and affordable vaccine, measles is expected to cause more than 1 lakh deaths in 2023. Most of these were children below five years of age.
–IANS
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