Four children and two adults who are infected with measles are currently being isolated and are in a stable condition.

Health Minister Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete confirms that two cases were identified in Labasa, three in Rewa, and one in Nasinu.

He says the ministry has initiated an immediate containment response which includes the management and isolation of confirmed cases, home quarantine of immediate family members, and contact tracing.

“They are stable and again we continue to remind people about vaccination for measles and even though we are 95 per cent in that vaccination campaign that we did but we also note that a cohort of the population are yet to get it.”

Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong says vaccination is an essential response to measles outbreak.

“We are looking at the coverage rate again just to see the catchup of our vaccination program. We apparently had a good catchup vaccination in the West and so we haven’t recorded any cases from that side.”

Measles is a highly contagious, serious, airborne disease caused by the measles virus, and spread through air droplets and through direct contact.

The signs and symptoms of measles includes high fever, running nose, cough, red and watery eyes.