30 Aug 2019

Measles: AIMS games cannot ban unvaccinated students

From Checkpoint, 5:14 pm on 30 August 2019

Organisers of a massive school sports tournament are apparently powerless to ban hundreds of unimmmunised students attending despite the measles outbreak.

In little over a week about 11,500 intermediate students from more than 365 schools in New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific will descend on the Bay of Plenty for the AIMS games - where they'll compete in 23 sports.

Students with measles MUST stay away and unimmunised students who have been exposed to measles are being asked not to attend either - but students who haven't had their vaccinations or don't know about their immunity is more of a grey area.

AIMS tournament chair Henk Popping, who is also the principal of Tauranga's Otumoetai Intermediate says since July they've been working closely with health officials to minimise the risk.