Three people who attended a university graduation ceremony in Melbourne last month have been diagnosed with measles, prompting concerns about others who may have been exposed to the infectious illness.
An 11-year-old child and a 17-year-old, from Victoria and the Northern Territory, had no connection other than attending the RMIT graduation ceremony at Etihad Stadium on December 17.
A 35-year-old man, who also attended the ceremony, has also been diagnosed with the disease.
“We think that they’ve almost certainly contracted the measles at the ceremony from someone who is probably unidentified who was infectious at the time,” Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr Rosemary Lester said.
“Measles is very highly infectious and it will seek out people who are unvaccinated and unfortunately these two young people were unvaccinated.”
Dr Lester said although they did not expect a large number of cases they believed it was “quite possible” they will be notified of more cases.
The disease is infectious for up to 18 days but over 90 per cent of Australians are vaccinated against measles.
“It is a concern to me that we still do have people who are needlessly at risk of what’s a very serious disease,” Dr Lester said.
“RMIT management have been helpful to us. An email has gone out to all the graduates who attended the ceremony with the basic details of our alert and asking them to alert their family and friends.”
Measles start with a fever, sore red eyes and after three or four days the rash is evident.
It can make a person very sick for a couple of weeks and side effects include pneumonia and encephalitis.
“If anyone has those symptoms they should seek medical attention,” she said.
“Preferably [they should] ring ahead to the doctor or hospital to say that they have those symptoms so that the doctor or hospital can isolate them when they come in to make sure they don’t mix with other patients.”