2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak
Measles epidemic affecting New Zealand in 2019 and 2020
The 2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak was an epidemic that primarily affected the Auckland region. It was the largest measles outbreak in the country since the introduction of the second dose of MMR vaccine to the New Zealand National Immunisation Schedule in 1992. An outbreak in 1991 caused an estimated tens of thousands of cases, followed by another outbreak in 1997 with 2,169 reported cases.
The D8 strain was confirmed to be the main strain of the epidemic, although the B3 strain was also detected, and the epidemic has spread to several other countries. In Samoa more than 72 people have died. Cases in Tonga and Fiji have also been recorded, and an outbreak in Perth began in October 2019 after a New Zealander visited while infectious. In New Zealand, two unborn fetuses in second trimester died as a result of the outbreak.
Response
The New Zealand Government was criticised for its response to the epidemic, particularly due to shortages in the supply of vaccines. Scientists also criticised the Ministry of Health for not acting on previous recommendations to conduct national 'catch-up' campaigns with the MMR vaccine prior to the outbreak.
In 2017, the New Zealand Health Ministry produced documents highlighting the urgent need to increase measles immunisation among young people, stating that a "systematic, programmatic approach" was needed to address an immunity gap.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak” as measles epidemic affecting New Zealand in 2019 and 2020. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q76480958. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2019, 2020, 1992 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.