Auckland's mumps outbreak has become an epidemic and a vaccination campaign is needed to stop it spreading across New Zealand, health experts say. More than 1000 people have caught mumps in Auckland this year, the number of cases almost doubling since the start of October. The outbreak was now an epidemic because it could not be contained, the public health officials say in a joint letter to the Ministry of Health. About 80 percent of current cases were in people not immunised, including among a so called "lost generation" of 10-29-year-olds with particularly low rates of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccination is free from doctors.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 20, 2017 20:48 UTC