19 Feb 2016

About 60 quarantined in measles scare

4:35 pm on 19 February 2016

Dozens of people have been quarantined and are undergoing tests for measles after an infected man ignored warnings and went out in public in Auckland.

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Photo: 123RF

The man spent several hours in public, mostly at the SkyCity Casino and near Sugar Tree Apartments, on 9 February.

Auckland Regional Public Health Service said it received at least 30 calls yesterday in response to a plea for anyone not immune who was in the area the man visited to get in contact.

Medical Officer of Health Richard Hoskins said 60 people had been instructed to go into quarantine since early February.

"A large number of those are just in quarantine while we wait for their immunity blood test results so they won't need to be in quarantine for longer than a couple of days while we get those taken and get the results back."

Mr Hoskins said there was a large segment of people aged between 10 and 30 who had never been immunised for measles, and they should get immunised now.

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