I think it is a crisis. I think that we've talked about trying to achieve herd immunity
but to achieve that you need to have at least 93 to 95 percent of the population immunised
and we don't have herd immunity.
Immunisation rates in South Auckland are among the lowest in the country resulting in staff
struggling to contain the virus.
Despite widespread media coverage, Dr Hulme says there's a serious problem around understanding
exactly what Measles is.
The patient I spoke to in the weekend who had measles and who has had it confirmed as
measles, said that she was 20 and she had not heard anything about it on TV, Radio or
in the papers and the only she became aware of measles was through Facebook and she saw
a picture of a baby that had measles and she thought it only affected babies.
She was still at work, she was one of 9. Of those 9 people in that household, one of them
went to a local high school and was still going to school.
We talked about the figures....70 percent of measles cases are here in Counties Manukau
district alone. Working here, being a doctor here - this is your community. How does that
make you feel?
It's pretty scary because on the day that she came there was a market out in the carpark
so to think that we've got people with measles in the local market, it's pretty scary.
Dr. Hulme says the culture of the community means people are actively social, regularly
attending church and community events.
It's one of the factors that has caused the district to see the biggest rise in measles
cases in the country over the past 3 months.
For this young girl who had measles, she came in to see me - she had the rash. I explained
to her that we need - I went through with her her period of infectivity and we worked
out when her infectious period started which was 5 days before the rash started and explained
to her and her partner that everyone she had seen in the last 5 days has been potentially
infected unless they're immune.
And the community's high-deprivation means many families are living in overcrowded homes
- another serious concern for medical staff.
So we go through who were the high-risk people that she may have been in contact with. Also
when we went through whoever the family members were and that's how I came up with the 9 family
members who were in the same household. And got their ages, who was at school and who
was at work
She'd been at her work place until she realised that she had the measles she had been at work,
thinking that she had the flu.
What was her reaction? Did she realise the scale of the scale of how important this was
or how serious this was?
I think it shocked her. I think it shocked her so much that when I went to print off
the letter for her employer and for her brother that went to highschool before I could bring
those letters back to her she'd left. So I think that she was in shock.
Dr Hulme says he was immediately worried when the young woman, who was not vaccinated, left
because hundreds of people were outside at the local market and he had wanted to give
her a face mask.
Many clinics have isolation rooms but local residents told First Up people are being asked
to wait in their cars if they suspect they have measles.
Dr Hulme says staff are prepared to go out to the carparks and see people in their cars.
Not everyone has got a car so it's not always possible for someone to wait in the car, so
if they've got a car and we go out to the car but otherwise we see them in the isolation
room but then that room can't be used for twenty minutes after the patient's been seen.
Dr Hulme says staff are now seeing measles cases everyday.
His message to the community is urgent and he says local residents need to wake up and
take measles seriously.
It's a serious condition. It is a public health emergency and I'd encourage everyone get immunised
and for themselves and their loved ones.