Health

Measles Outbreak: Hundreds wait in line to get vaccinated

December 4, 2019 12:40 pm

Hundreds of Fijians in the Suva/Lami area waited in queues to get vaccinated this morning.

With the roll-out of the 200,000 doses of measles vaccines, hundreds of Fijians in the Suva/Lami area waited in queues to get vaccinated this morning.

Lami resident, Lusia Kamanalagi, says she waited two hours to get her shot as people in the area were already at the Health centre by 7am.

Kamanalagi says people are making an effort to get vaccinated after seeing how serious the disease is in Samoa.

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“Just come and take it as per the advisory by the Ministry of Health. Just to prevent any measles in the future but I think they should provide more tents because the patients are all waiting out here in the sun and there are kids and old people around.”

At the Samabula Health Centre, many employees were seen taking time off work to get vaccinated.

Mazben Pariwala who flew in from India on Sunday says he was advised to get a shot.

“I understand there’s a measles outbreak here in the country, so I think the country is doing really good to give us vaccination and this will really help to ensure the population that comes in is also safeguarded.”

Vaccinations are also being done at Sukuna Park in Suva.

Queue at Sukuna Park for measles vaccination.#FBCNews

Posted by FBC News on Tuesday, December 3, 2019

The Health Ministry says there are now 15 confirmed cases of measles in Fiji.

11 cases from the Serua/Namosi Subdivision, 2 cases from Suva Subdivision and two from Rewa Subdivision.

Measles is a highly contagious disease; therefore, non-essential travel to Serua/Namosi and Nasilai Village in Nakelo is strongly discouraged.

Measles is very contagious and to help stop the spread of the disease, the Ministry is also advising Fijians to take the following precautions:

• Avoid non-essential travel to Serua/Namosi and Nasilai Village in Nakelo. If you need to travel to these areas, please get vaccinated against measles at least two weeks before travel. Please avoid taking those that cannot get vaccinated (e.g. babies under the age of 6 months and pregnant women) to the outbreak areas.

• Avoid holding or attending large gatherings of people, especially in Central Division, but also those that bring participants from across the country or overseas (such as youth camps, religious gatherings, graduation ceremonies, sporting events, etc.). Measles can spread very easily among large groups of people if they are not immune, who can then take the disease back into their communities.

• If you are holding an event with international visitors, or participants from an outbreak area, please strongly encourage them to get vaccinated against measles at least two (2) weeks before travel. This especially applies to visitors traveling from other countries with measles outbreaks i.e. New Zealand, Samoa,and Tonga.