A leading immunisation specialist is urging Ballarat residents to check their measles vaccination record - and if in doubt, roll up your sleeves for a likely third shot.
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The call comes in the wake of an overseas traveller returning to Melbourne infected with the virus in late September.
With Victorian schools returning from holidays and a surge in international travel, everyone is encouraged to be extra cautious.
Immunisation Coalition chairman and policy adviser Rodney Pearce, who is also a general practitioner, said all it took was isolated, unprotected pockets in the community for the disease to spread.
Australia effectively managed to eradicate measles decades ago but the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of routine vaccinations and migrants from countries without a similar national vaccination program are creating vulnerabilities.
"We need to make sure everyone's got coverage and it's important everyone check this," Dr Pearce said.
"...If in doubt, top it up. Routine vaccinations are important whether you're travelling and for maximising protection in the community.
"...Measles is a nasty disease. Since COVID, we've learnt to test for [a virus] and treat it and we need to be doing this with other diseases too. This also goes for RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] or measles - any physical diseases we need to be maintaining physical distancing."
Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can lead to uncommon but serious complications, such as pneumonia and brain inflammation (encephalitis). Symptoms can also appear similar to COVID-19 but is best recognised with a rash.
The virus can remain infectious and present in environment, in droplets and on surfaces, for up to two hours.
This is the fourth measles case in Victoria this year but Australians have been warned while traveling to outbreaks within Africa, Europe, the United States and Asia, including Indonesia and India.
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Dr Pearce said a community needs 90 to 95 per cent herd immunity but vaccination is the best protection.
Anyone born after 1966 is particularly susceptible to the illness if they had not had two doses of a measles vaccine.
In Victoria, measles vaccinations are typically delivered to children at 12 months and again at 18 months old.
Free vaccinations are available to children and anyone who has not received the full two doses.
A new Measles-Mumps-Rubella-Chickenpox vaccine is not recommended to anyone aged 14-plus.
Everyone is urged to check the Australian Immunisation Register for their child's jab status; vaccination eligibility details are via the Australian health department at health.vic.gov.au.
Measles jabs are available via general practices and City of Ballarat's family and children's services on 5320 5720.
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