Three People Who Attended RMIT Graduation Affected By Measles
RMIT University in Melbourne held its graduation ceremony on Dec 17 at Etihad Stadium. Three people who attended the ceremony have been affected by measles, an infection of the respiratory system, and there have been concerns that there might be others who could have been exposed to the illness.
The three people who were affected by measles were a 11-year-old girl from Victoria, a 17-year-old boy from the Northern Territory and a 35-year-old man, who authorities said, was not born in Australia. The one thing that the three of them had in common was that they attended RMIT's graduation ceremony. The 11-year-old and the man have been kept under hospitalisation. Authorities are trying to find out if the man had been vaccinated.
The number of people who attended the ceremony is not exactly known and could be about thousands of people. The chief health officer of Victoria, Dr Rosemary Lester, said that the authorities were quite certain that the three people had contracted the illness at the RMIT graduation from a person who was unidentified and was infectious during that time.
According to Lester, measles is highly infectious and that it affectespeople who are unvaccinated, and it was unfortunate that the two young children were not vaccinated. Reports by ABC News suggested that about 93 percent of the Australians had been vaccinated against the illness.
She explained that the authorities did not expect a large number of cases of measles but were of the belief that there was a possibility of more cases coming in. For a span of up to 18 days, measles is considered to be infectious. She said that it was a concern for her that there were still people who were at risk of the serious disease.
She continued that the management of RMIT had been very helpful. She added that all the graduates who attended the ceremony had been sent e-mails regarding the basic details of the alert that the authorities have put together. The e-mail also asked the graduates to let their family and friends know of the same.
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