Sydney, March 12 (IANS) A recent surge in measles cases in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has predominantly been driven by infections acquired in Southeast Asia, health authorities said on Thursday.The NSW Department of Health said in a report that authorities were notified of 60 confirmed measles cases in the state between January 1, 2025, and March 7, 2026.Of those cases, 34 contracted measles overseas, including 32 people who traveled to countries in Southeast Asia.Another 18 o…
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Sydney, March 4 (IANS) Authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) have issued a measles health alert for western Sydney as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise toward the total figure for 2025.The NSW Department of Health said in a warning released on Tuesday night that it is advising people in western Sydney to be alert for signs and symptoms of measles after being notified of a confirmed case who had no known exposure to the highly contagious airborne disease.”With…
Wellington, Feb 24 (IANS) Two new measles cases linked to overseas travel and from the same household have been detected in Auckland, three weeks after New Zealand declared an earlier outbreak over.Locations of interest include Singapore Airlines flight SQ281, which arrived in Auckland on February 17, Auckland International Airport, and the Waitakere Hospital’s emergency department waiting room, Health New Zealand said in a statement on Tuesday.Public health officials are tracing contacts, parti…
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) Nearly one million children were missed and more than 53,000 families refused vaccination during Pakistan’s latest nationwide polio campaign, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of eradication efforts, a report has said.While health officials report that over 44 million children were vaccinated and overall coverage reached 98 per cent, experts warn that even a small gap is dangerous in a country that still carries the poliovirus, according to Dawn report.A…
Ulan Bator, Feb 9 (IANS) The total number of measles cases in Mongolia has increased to 14,123, the country’s National Centre for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said on Monday.The majority of new measles infections were among school-age children who had had only one shot of the measles vaccine, the NCCD said in a statement.In view of this, the NCCD advised parents to protect their children from a potentially severe disease by getting them two doses of the measles vaccine.Measles is one of the worl…
Washington, Feb 9 (IANS) Former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that the accelerating measles outbreak in the United States is part of a broader global cycle driven by falling vaccination rates and a growing anti-vaccine backlash that has spread well beyond America.“I think this is going to get worse, unfortunately, before it resolves,” Gottlieb said on CBS’ Face the Nation, pointing to a steady rise in cases this year following what he described as d…
New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) Amid several claims of vaccination and reduced fertility, a study of nearly 60,000 women showed that the Covid vaccine played no role in a decrease in childbirth.Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, unfounded rumours have circulated, especially on social media, alleging that vaccination impairs chances of becoming pregnant. In the later stages of the pandemic, there was a decrease in the number of children born in some countries, including Sweden. This raised the…
Islamabad/New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) Even after three decades of aggressive eradication campaigns, Pakistan’s polio woes continue amid public mistrust and logistical gaps, according to a media report. Pakistan first launched the anti-polio campaign in 1994. Yet, over the last 31 years, the country recorded a staggering total of 14,206 confirmed polio cases, The Express Tribune’s T-Magazine reported.It stated that the country has also created an invisible population of survivors due to a lack of…
Islamabad, Jan 18 (IANS) Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples from 40 districts across Pakistan, according to test results from the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health.In a statement issued this week, the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program said environmental samples were collected in December 2025 from multiple locations nationwide, confirming the presence of poliovirus in several areas, reports Xinhua news agency.”A total of 127 envi…
Los Angeles, Jan 17 (IANS) The United States has recorded at least 18 million influenza illnesses, 230,000 hospitalisations and 9,300 deaths so far during the current flu season, according to the latest estimates released by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The CDC said seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationwide, though it has decreased or remained stable for two consecutive weeks.Influenza A(H3N2) viruses have been the most commonly reported strains circulati…