Below are charts showing patients notified to NSW Health with a particular infectious disease. The first graph shows the number of notifications by month. The second graph shows the age and gender of patients notified in the last year.
Name the infectious disease.....
Answer
The disease is measles. Although immunisation rates are fairly high among infants in NSW (almost 94% have been immunised by 2 years of age (see NSW Annual Immunisation Coverage Report, 2012) and adults born before 1966 have a good chance of having natural immunity from infection(see Australian Immunisation Handbook - Measles), many younger people are not immunised to measles and remain at risk of infection.
The first graph shows that although measles is not endemic to NSW, several outbreaks have occurred in NSW in the last few years. These have been linked to importation of the disease largely from returning unimmunised travellers who were exposed overseas, leading to local outbreaks. The second graph demonstrates that no cases have been reported in people older than 44 year of age in the last year, consistent with the belief that they are largely immune to infection (see Measles data
