516 measles cases in NZ

Auckland’s measles outbreak is showing no sign of slowing, with 27 new cases confirmed in the space of one day. As of yesterday, there have been 410 cases of the highly infectious illness in the region so far this year, jumping from 383 on Monday. Auckland Regional Public Health Service saw the largest week-on-week increase last week, with 58 new cases. It comes as the latest surveillance report from ESR shows there have been 516 confirmed measles cases across New Zealand this year. This is the highest since the 2011 outbreak, when 597 cases were notified. The 2011 outbreak was the largest annual count since the last measles epidemic, which peaked in 1997 with 1984 cases, ESR said. There were 69 new cases nationally last week.