Background
Measles is a highly contagious viral, airborne disease which typically presents with high fever, cough, conjunctivitis and a maculopular rash. While no longer endemic in Australia, imported cases do occur. A single case of measles is a public health emergency requiring rapid contact tracing to prevent further cases. In January 2025 a returned traveller with measles was notified to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Darwin, Northern Territory (NT); the first case in NT since 2019.
Methods
A weekend outbreak team was formed to follow national public health response guidelines. We interviewed the case to determine travel history, infectious period and potential contacts and provided isolation advice. A Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) database recorded contact details, vaccination status and past infection history. Telstra Integrated Messaging was used to send text messages to contacts, asking them to telephone CDC. A REDCap questionnaire was administered to determine susceptibility to infection, identify further contacts and determine appropriate public health action. Eligible contacts were given either measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or normal human immunoglobulin (NHIG) to prevent measles infection. Staff overtime hours and cost were calculated. Results
We identified 164 contacts; 155 (94%) were successfully contacted; 9 (5%) were lost to follow up but fully vaccinated. Five contacts (3%) received the MMR vaccine, one person received NHIG. Two contacts were symptomatic and tested for measles, both tested negative. The contact tracing was completed by 8 staff over 12 hours on a weekend. We calculated the human resource cost for this outbreak response to be approximately $7,200.
Conclusion
This outbreak response highlighted vaccine effectiveness and that a rapid, co-ordinated response was critical in preventing transmission. The use of REDCap as a c