NSW hit with 29th measles diagnosis

Another person has been diagnosed with the potentially deadly measles virus and Sydney's Sutherland Shire has emerged as a hotspot in the NSW outbreak.

Health authorities are urging people to seek out the measles vaccine after the 29th person was diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus in NSW.

The latest infection is the fifth of a growing outbreak in the Sutherland Shire.

The person visited Canterbury Hospital between 9.30am and 1pm and the nearby Aldi from 1pm until 2pm on October 10.

They also visited the Miranda Westfield on October 11 from 1pm until 3pm.

"Our public health units are contacting people known to have been in contact with this latest case to offer preventive injections, where appropriate," NSW Health's director of communicable diseases Vicky Sheppeard said in a statement on Monday.

"However it will not be possible to identify and contact all people who may have been exposed. We encourage people who were in the same locations as the latest case to keep a close watch for symptoms and get vaccinated.

Dr Sheppeard said most of the state's 29 cases were aged between 20 and 50 years and the majority were unaware they were not completely vaccinated as children.

Symptoms of measles include fever, sore eyes and a cough followed three or four days later by a red, blotchy rash spreading from the head and neck to the rest of the body.


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Source: AAP

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