25 Oct 2025

Can our hospitals cope with a measles outbreak?

From Saturday Morning, 7:27 am on 25 October 2025

Health officials working on contact tracing measles patients have now identified patient zero on the Cook Strait ferry crossing.

There are now eight active cases with several of them linked to the Bluebridge ferry trip which was on the 3rd of October.

Dr Mamaeroa David is the senior Māori clinical advisor at the Immunisation Advisory Centre.  

She says our hospitals won't be able to cope with another outbreak like the one in 2019 and joins Guyon to explain why.

Illustration of a measles virus, a highly contagious pathogen responsible for measles infections. (Photo by THOM LEACH / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA / TLE / Science Photo Library via AFP)

Graphic depiction of a measles virus Photo: THOM LEACH / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA /AFP