logo
Urgent measles warning issued to Aussies

Urgent measles warning issued to Aussies

Perth Now26-07-2025
Northern Territory health authorities have issued a measles alert after a man travelled through multiple tourism hotspots before ending up in hospital in north Queensland.
NT Health issued the alert on Saturday morning, warning anyone who was on tourism trips in the state, at restaurant in Kakadu National Park, or travelled through Darwin or Alice Springs Airports on specific dates in July to be alert for measles symptoms.
These include a fever, sore eyes, a runny nose, a cough, and a blotchy red rash.
'Check your vaccination status,' an NT Health spokesperson said.
'Measles is highly contagious but preventable with two doses of a measles-containing vaccine.'
Health authorities suspect the man who travelled while infectious acquired measles in Indonesia. Measles can be deadly for children. ACS Credit: Supplied
'The NT Centre for Disease Control is urging Territorians to be alert following confirmation of a measles case who travelled through Darwin and Alice Springs while infectious,' the alert reads.
'The individual, likely infected overseas, visited multiple public locations in the NT between July 17 and 23.'
NT Health says the man was likely infectious when he went on an all-day tour with Ethical Adventures in Litchfield National Park on July 17.
The next day, he left for an overnight tour with AAPT Kings Jabiru, and was at the Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel in Jabiru from 6pm to 8pm on July 18.
The measles alert does not account for his movements the next two days, but the next listed location is the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, from 1pm to 3pm on July 20.
It is believed the man then went to Darwin Airport at 3.30pm and flew to Alice Springs on Qantas flight QF1960, arriving at 7pm.
On Wednesday, July 23, the man flew from Alice Springs to Cairns on Air North flight TL361.
'Anyone who attended these locations during these times should monitor for symptoms … Symptoms can take up to 18 days after exposure to develop,' the alert said.
'The vaccine is safe and effective, and available from your GP, local health centre, Aboriginal health clinic, and vaccinating pharmacies.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trek tackles heart disease cruelling Indigenous lives
Trek tackles heart disease cruelling Indigenous lives

Perth Now

time2 days ago

  • Perth Now

Trek tackles heart disease cruelling Indigenous lives

Medical specialists, cultural guides and local medicos are teaming up for a Top End trek to tackle a disease affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the most. Indigenous Australians are 64 times more likely to have rheumatic heart disease than non-Indigenous, with women and young people most affected. The disease begins with a common strep A infection - a sore throat or skin sore that can lead to lifelong complications, invasive treatments and premature death if left untreated. A team of paediatric cardiologists, nurses, sonographers, Aboriginal cultural guides and local health professionals have embarked on a trek across the Big Rivers region of the NT. The Deadly Heart Trek focuses on education, early diagnosis and treatment of the disease and its precursor acute rheumatic fever, with echocardiographic heart checks and skin checks performed by health professionals. "It's a national shame that this disease has been eradicated in every developed country except Australia," the trek's cultural lead Aunty Vicki Wade told AAP. Now in its fifth year, the trek will visit nine communities before finishing on August 15. While it is philanthropically funded, the trek's founder and pediatric cardiologist Bo Remenyi says more government is needed to eradicate the disease. One in five Aboriginal controlled health organisations are funded for rheumatic heart disease, according to Dr Remenyi. "Medically, technically we know what to do - we need to address housing ... we need to ensure medical centres are funded and staffed appropriately to address really basic sore throats, school sores, because that's what prevents rheumatic fever," she said. Ms Wade, a senior Noongar woman, said it is also important to invest in Aboriginal communities, who know what is best in the places they live. "Aboriginal leadership is really important. Aboriginal people in community know if they can do things, what needs to be done and how to do it," she said. More than 3900 children have been screened and 107 new cases of rheumatic heart disease treated in visits to 37 communities across Queensland and the NT, according to the Snow Foundation which funds and supports the trek. The trek was created in response to the voices of those with lived experience of the ailments and the urgent need for better access to services, education and specialist medical care and equipment, foundation chief executive Georgina Byron said.

The housing crisis leaving children crawling in poison
The housing crisis leaving children crawling in poison

The Age

time5 days ago

  • The Age

The housing crisis leaving children crawling in poison

An acute shortage of affordable housing in the regional city of Broken Hill is forcing Indigenous families into unlivable rentals riddled with mining contamination, exposing children to blood lead levels double the rate of the general population. Health workers and community leaders have urged Premier Chris Minns to invest in stable social housing for Indigenous families and a revamped program to reduce lead contamination in existing homes, after new statistics revealed two-thirds of Aboriginal children aged between one and five have blood lead levels higher than the national guideline. 'This is a public health crisis,' said Richard Weston, chief executive of the Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation, in a letter to Minns and four other NSW ministers last month. 'Aboriginal children in Broken Hill deserve clean homes, safe air and a future free from the legacy of lead.' Most of the lead in the town's air and soil comes from vast mines running through and underneath Broken Hill – a city built on the world's largest deposit of lead, silver and zinc. The problem of environmental lead exposure was identified as early as the 1890s, but efforts to tackle the problem didn't occur until the establishment of the Broken Hill lead monitoring program a century later. The program is considered a public health success story, helping to drive down blood lead levels in newborns and children throughout the 1990s and 2000s. But progress has plateaued, and the gap between lead levels in Indigenous and non-Indigenous children has remained. The latest figures, released by Far West Local Health District last month, show the average blood lead level for Aboriginal children was 1½ times higher than for non-Aboriginal children. Six per cent of Aboriginal children tested had dangerously high readings above 20 micrograms per decilitre (μg/dL) – six times the rate of their non-Indigenous peers.

Broken Hill crisis response requires rethink
Broken Hill crisis response requires rethink

Sydney Morning Herald

time5 days ago

  • Sydney Morning Herald

Broken Hill crisis response requires rethink

As Angus Thomson writes in today's Sun-Herald, new statistics have revealed two-thirds of Aboriginal children aged between one and five in Broken Hill have blood lead levels higher than the national guideline. Health workers and community leaders have urged Premier Chris Minns to invest in stable social housing for Indigenous families, labelling the situation a 'public health crisis' and warning that the current remediation program has worsened the situation, as tenants face rent hikes or evictions after landlords improved properties. The city's lead monitoring program was initially hailed as a public health success, but progress has plateaued. The average blood lead level for Aboriginal children between one and five years old has stayed above the national guideline in all but one of the past 10 years. Since 2015, taxpayers have spent more than $13 million managing the lead issue in Broken Hill, according to local community advocates. That's a lot of cash to spend on a situation that has not improved. Today's story notes that in 2023 the state government received briefing documents that the current approach, in which remediation occurs only when children have recorded high blood levels, was 'ad hoc'. It is unacceptable that any child is exposed to such environmental dangers, but it is particularly unacceptable that Indigenous children in Broken Hill are disproportionately being exposed to lead. Loading There is no known safe level of lead in blood, especially for children. NSW Health's fact sheet on lead exposure notes that such exposure, even at low levels, can affect children's physical and mental development. Among Australia's long list of Closing the Gap targets is to increase, by 2031, the proportion of Indigenous children assessed as developmentally on track by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55 per cent. That is the proportion of non-Indigenous children in NSW who meet those targets. But between 2018 and 2024, the proportion of Indigenous children meeting this metric went backwards on both national and state levels; last year just 34 per cent of Indigenous children nationally and 37 per cent in NSW were assessed as developmentally on track.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store