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June 23, 2015Unvaccinated travellers are continuing to bring cases of measles back to Australia and infection rates of whooping cough are spiking once again.
“Many places in the rest of the world popular with Australian travellers are experiencing measles outbreaks,” AMA (NSW) President, Dr Saxon Smith, said.
“Unfortunately, what we’re seeing is a number of unvaccinated Australians bringing home unwanted souvenirs in the form of measles infections.
“Measles is an extremely infectious, acute respiratory illness that can result in death and brain damage.
“When there are outbreaks in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and even the USA, Australian travellers should be extra careful about making sure their vaccinations are up to date.
“Families planning on visiting Disneyland in California, for example, should definitely check their vaccinations are up to date, as there was a recent outbreak there.
“The only way to protect yourself is to be immunised and the best way you can do that is to see your GP,” Dr Smith said.
“At the same time, Australia is seeing a spike in cases of whooping cough and it’s also a very infectious respiratory illness.
“Again, the best way to avoid catching it is to ensure that you and your family are vaccinated against it.
“It’s especially important that we, as a community, ensure we have high levels of immunisation against whooping cough, because it can kill babies.
“New babies following the National Immunisation Program Schedule are not fully immunised until they are six months old.
“For babies with parents who have delayed, for whatever reason – even just forgetting – full immunity may not be achieved until they are older.
“Babies younger than two months old often have no protection, because the first whooping cough vaccine cannot be delivered until then.
“Unfortunately, younger babies are the ones most at risk of death from whooping cough.
“Babies whose mothers are vaccinated during pregnancy do gain some protection against whooping cough and a free vaccine is available to pregnant women in NSW.
“If everyone in a community around an unvaccinated baby is immunised against whooping cough, it significantly lowers the risk the baby will ever come into contact with whooping cough,” Dr Smith said.
Media contact: Lachlan Jones (02) 9902 8113 / 0419 402 955