Children and young people are being urged to get vaccinated against measles if they currently have no protection against the disease.

The prompt comes as Waikato reports a new outbreak of disease and Waikato DHB urges general practices and medical centres to control this recently recognised measles epidemic. Medical officer of health Dr Dell Hood says unimmunised people are most at risk.

Immunisation is free and is the only way to prevent the disease. Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine are needed to gain the best protection. Once fully immunised, 90-95 per cent of people are protected from measles.

For several years, general practices have been working to improve measles immunisation rates, following a sharp increase in measles cases in some parts of the country. More on rubella.

Immunisation has proven to be one of the most effective medical breakthroughs in preventing diseases that used to take an enormous toll on communities, says Immunisation Health Target Champion Dr Pat Tuohy (pictured left).

“Just because we don’t see the kind of epidemics our grandparents lived through doesn’t mean these diseases have disappeared.

Over the past couple of years more than 200 children and adults have caught measles in outbreaks throughout New Zealand.

Some were so sick they had to be hospitalised.”

Immunisation against measles is free and is the best way to prevent the disease, he says.

“Although we’ve made a lot of progress over the past five years, our immunisation rates are still too low to prevent these kinds of outbreaks.