00:01We are really trying to guard that elimination status, which we will lose if some of those
00:08cases that come in from overseas kind of take hold and turn into sort of local clusters.
00:13But so far we've been very good at using contact tracing and things like that to stamp it out.
00:19This new study has kind of identified key age gaps, some of which might be a little
00:24surprising to people, where people might not be fully protected.
00:27The people that are most susceptible to measles, which is one of, if not the most contagious
00:33virus known to humankind, are young children that haven't been able to be vaccinated yet.
00:39Because the vaccine, I think, is partially a live virus, routine immunisation for children
00:45doesn't happen until one.
00:46Pregnant women, once they're pregnant, can't be immunised and obviously immune suppressed
00:50people can't be immunised.
00:51So they're the most susceptible people.
00:52But what this study found was that because of the way vaccination programs have changed
00:58over the decades, there are these key pockets of age gaps where people may not have had their
01:03second dose or and so therefore they're not fully protected.
01:08And, you know, we've heard so much about declining childhood vaccinations over the last five years
01:12and some reluctance to get vaccinated.
01:15And that's still an issue.
01:16But what this study shows us is that there's these gaps in the adult population that have
01:22kind of emerged in this study.
01:24And when I was speaking to epidemiologists about why it's important to know this, one
01:29of them said to me, look, this is matching up with the age groups of people who are getting
01:34measles overseas and sometimes bringing it home.
01:36The World Health Organization's ideal herd immunity is between 93 and 95 percent.
01:42Now, all people who work in epidemiology will say we need to be as close to 100 percent
01:46as we can possibly get with a virus that's this contagious.
01:49We are now sitting at 93.3 percent.
01:52So we're right down the bottom end of that herd immunity.
01:56And what epidemiologists are telling us about that is that if we keep slipping down, then our
02:02ability to stamp out these cases when they come back from overseas and make sure that they
02:06don't become kind of local clusters or sort of, you know, locally acquired kind of cases
02:12of measles is going to...
02:14It's just going to get harder and harder for Australia to deal with it.
02:18We'll see you next time.
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