Jetstar, Air New Zealand flights last week exposed to measles

New Zealand public health authorities are notifying passengers who travelled on Jetstar and Air New Zealand flights between Auckland and Wellington that they may have been exposed to measles.

A passenger on two flights was infectious with the disease, which authorities are calling "widespread in parts of the Auckland Region".

Measles is a virus spread by droplets in the air, and is considered "highly infectious" by the Australian Department of Health and Aging.

The two flights were:

• Jetstar flight JQ265 from Auckland to Wellington -- codeshared with Qantas as QF4973 -- departing at 1030 on Tuesday 13 September
• Air New Zealand flight NZ446 from Wellington to Auckland departing at 1500 on Thursday 15 September.

If you travelled on the flight, you may already have been contacted by the airline or NZ authorities if still in New Zealand.

Australian doctors may not be on the lookout for the disease, since Australia was declared measles-free in 2009 by the World Health Organisation.

If you were on those flights and develop symptoms -- which the Department of Health and Aging describes as rash, fever, cough, runny nose and inflammation of the eye -- consult your doctor.

For the latest on the outbreak from New Zealand's authorities, check back with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service's measles page.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.