Measles case triggers major health alert

Queensland Health has issued an alert after a man who travelled to Brisbane from Jakarta via Melbourne was diagnosed with measles.

The warning, issued by Metro North Health on Saturday evening. said the man was “unknowingly infectious” at the time, and visited several businesses before he was admitted to the Redcliffe Hospital on Thursday, and then again Friday.

Authorities say he landed at Melbourne airport on Sunday, July 2 on Qantas flight QF40, before taking flight QF610 to Brisbane on Monday. He then travelled to Queensland’s Moreton Bay area, about 40 minutes north of Brisbane.

Several businesses and locations have been identified as potential hot spots, and passengers who may shared a flight with the man have been identified as potential close contacts.

People who visited the venues at the listed times have been asked to monitor for symptoms for 18 days, because symptoms typically appear between day seven to 18 after exposure to infection.

Metro North Public Health physician Megan Young urged people with symptoms to seek medical advice.

Initial signs can include fever, tiredness, a runny noise, a moist cough and sore red eyes. Patients will later develop a measles rash which spreads from the face and down the body a few days after the initial symptoms appear.

Spots may also appear in the mouth, and young children can also get diarrhoea.

“Early symptoms of measles include a fever, tiredness, cough, runny nose, and red, inflamed eyes. Those symptoms then progress to a blotchy red rash, which often starts on the face before becoming widespread,” Dr Young said.

“Anyone seeking treatment for an illness they think could be measles should call ahead before visiting their GP or medical practice to allow precautions to be taken that can prevent the illness spreading to others.”

Points of potential exposure include:

– Flight QF40 from Jakarta to Melbourne, on Sunday 2 July, departed at 9:20pm

– Melbourne Airport on Monday 3 July, between 6.20am and 9.50am

– Flight QF610 from Melbourne to Brisbane on Monday 3 July, departed at 9:50am

– Brisbane Domestic Airport on Monday 3 July, between Noon and 1pm

– Nudgee Service Centre, 1097 Nudgee Road, Nudgee on Monday 3 July, between 1.15pm and 1.45pm, and again on Saturday 8 July, between 11pm and 11.40pm

– CJ’s Pastries, Ashmole Road and Klingner Roads at Kippa-Ring on Monday 3 July, between 1.40pm and 2.10pm

– Vital Life Centres, 1 Jeays Street, Scarborough on Tuesday 4 July, Wednesday 5 July, Saturday 8 July, between 8am and 11.30am, and on Monday 10 July, between 3pm and 4pm

– Kippa-Ring Shopping Centre on Tuesday 4 July, between 2pm and 4pm

– City Cave Redcliffe Sauna, 265 Oxley Ave, Margate on Saturday 8 July, between 1pm and 2.30pm

– Dan Murphy’s, 867 Stanley St, Woolloongabba on Saturday 8 July, between 6.15pm and 7pm

– DFO Skygate at Brisbane Airport on Sunday 9 July, between 10am and 6.30pm (in particular, at the Volcom outlet and in the food court)

– Redcliffe Hospital Emergency Department on Thursday 13 July, between 4.15pm and 10pm, and again on Friday 14 July between 8:45am and 4pm.

Queensland Health also advised people who do not have two documented doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, or who have not been previously infected with the virus, to get vaccinated.

The highly contagious virus can cause serious complications like pneumonia (lung infection) and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and is spread through airborne infected droplets.