Western Sydney Local Health District’s public health unit acting director Dr Conrad Moreira said the latest outbreak posed no ongoing risk to the public, but urged those who might have been exposed to monitor for symptoms.

“Symptoms include fever, sore eyes, runny nose and a cough followed three or four days later
by a red, blotchy rash that spreads from the head to the rest of the body,” Dr Moreira said.

In Australia, between 1996 and 2016 there were only three deaths caused by measles. Two doses of measles-containing vaccine provide lifelong protection against measles in 99 of 100 vaccinated people. About 93 per cent of Australian two-year-old children are vaccinated against measles.

The measles scare comes a month after NSW hospitals recorded a surge in school-age children with pneumonia presenting to emergency departments in NSW.