Health expert: Don’t bring babies to Canty

Parents of babies too young for vaccination are being warned to stay away from Canterbury while a measles outbreak continues.

Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey told Stuff on Tuesday that parents of babies under 12 months old intending to visit Canterbury in the next few weeks should cancel their plans if the outbreak of measles continued to spread.

In answer to a Stuff reader’s question on whether they should bring their 8-month-old to Christchurch for a family wedding in May, Humphrey said he would not bring a baby to the region until the outbreak was contained.

‘‘I’d keep an eye on what’s happening with the outbreak.

‘‘If the outbreak looks like it’s contained by May – and we’d hope it was – but if it’s not contained, I would not bring the baby down if it’s still spreading,’’ Humphrey said.

Under the national immunisation schedule for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), the first dose is available at 15 months and a second dose at 4 years old.

However, in Canterbury the ages for both injections has been brought forward.

Last week the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) said children could be given the first dose at 12 months and the second dose one month after that.

About 92 per cent of children in Canterbury are fully vaccinated at 5 years of age. Humphrey said it was ‘‘hard to say’’ how many of the remaining 8 per cent was down to anti-vaccination beliefs.

‘‘True conscientious objectors are relatively rare. Most who do not get it done is because parents are busy. After the last 2009 Canterbury outbreak, many in this group chose to get their children vaccinated.’’