Monday Pānui 6 October 2025

In today’s Pānui	Measles – funding to improve access to measles care Your team’s measles immune status Rapid identification and management of people with infectious respiratory illness – triage guide Update to the Measles Chapter of the Health NZ Communicable Disease Control (CD) Manual Identifying people under 30 years who have not completed their MMR Immunisations
Measles – funding to improve access to measles care	Today’s Medinz noted that there is funding for measles related Primary Care services and referred practices to their PHO. Here’s what you need to know: There is funding available for general practices to support Public Health efforts to manage the current (and any future) measles outbreak. Usually, Public Health will direct a person who is suspected case or who has had close contact with a measles case (and there may be instances where a person turns up at the Practice, announcing that Public Health has sent them.  We have been advised that you can take the person’s word on this. Who is eligible? A person identified by the public health team as a measles case, suspected or close contact of a meases case who are in one of the following groups: Māori Pacific people Disabled people People living with severe mental health and addiction issues People living in Quintile 4 & 5 People living in socioeconomically deprived communities (quintile 4 & 5) Other inequitably impacted population groups, including: - Migrant ethnic communities - Rough sleepers - People in transitional housing - Those not enrolled in Primary care practices. Others as identified as requiring funded support by a Public Health Service Below is the service and pricing schedule In the event you have completed a request by Public Health to provide any of the above services, submit an invoice to suzanne@aucklandpho.co.nz with the date of service, the  NHI of the patient, type of service and the associated charge noting they are GST exclusive.
Your team’s measles immune status	Please assess your team’s measles immunity Assessing measles immunity for primary and community health facility workers 15.5.25..pdf
Rapid identification and management of people with infectious respiratory illness – triage guide	Check out and print the flow chart for easy access. Rapid identification and management of people with infectious respiratory illness triage.pdf
Update to the Measles Chapter of the Health New Zealand Communicable Disease Control Manual	Update made to the measles chapter of the Health New Zealand Communicable Disease Control (CD) Manual    An update has been made to the measles chapter of the Health New Zealand Communicable Disease Control (CD) Manual. Te Reo Māori case and contact management resources are now available in Pikau. The changes to the CD Manual measles chapter were reviewed and endorsed by the Measles Clinical and Technical Advisory Group on 11 September 2025. The updated measles chapter is available here: Measles – Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora A full summary of updates that have been made to the chapter is available here: Summary of updates to the guidance Please read the following information and share with those responsible for measles case and contact management. Key information for primary care, urgent care and hospital specialist services: •            Please ensure recent vaccination status is included on all request forms for PCR, genotyping or vaccine strain testing. Refer to Laboratory testing guidelines section of CD Manual for detailed guidance on testing. Key information for public health services Post-exposure vaccination: MMR vaccination is recommended for non-immune and partially vaccinated close contacts any time before their quarantine/restriction period begins. •            Contacts should continue to be managed under their original contact category, even if given MMR vaccination within 72 hours post-exposure. While this may reduce the risk of infection or disease severity it does not change immune status or contact categorisation. Locations of interest: Add a standard buffer time of one-hour for the purpose of publishing locations of interest. Refer to Exposure event management section for detailed guidance on publishing locations of interest. Notification and reporting: national escalation is required for: •            New criteria for what constitutes a high index of suspicion to trigger national escalation. •            New recommendations clarifying when National Focal Point (NFP) notifications are required for overseas contacts. Outbreak definition: has been updated to 2 or more epidemiologically linked cases. Case and contact management resources available in Te Reo Māori The measles information sheet and all case and contact management letters have been translated into Te Reo Māori for use by public health services to support measles awareness and public health management for our Māori communities.  •            These translated letters are based on the Te Ao Māori versions which were developed to reflect the worldviews, language, and communication preferences of each community. This approach supports understanding and trust by ensuring people receive information in a way that aligns with their values. •            Case and contact managers will be able to work in partnership with the case or contact to identify which version of the letter (i.e. Te Reo Māori, Te Ao Māori or English) best meets their needs and supports meaningful engagement. •            The Te Reo Māori and Te Reo Māori resources are available here in Pikau - measles case and contact letters and information for use by public health services. The Te Reo Māori and Te Ao Māori information sheets will also be available as part of the measles collection on HealthEd - measles information sheets. Any questions can be sent to the NPHS Protection Communicable Disease team: CD.team.Protection@TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Identifying people under 30 who have not completed the MMR immunisations	Measles has not travelled to Auckland (yet!). However, we suggest that you identify people under 30 years who have not completed/started their MMR vaccinations and opportunistically offer MMR when they seek health care. The Mōhio MMR Vaccine report provides information on people under 30 years who require one or two MMR vaccinations.  We are requesting MMR vaccine status be included in Mōhio Express.