Measles warning: Passenger flying from Gold Coast to Auckland latest confirmed case

Measles spreads easily through the air via coughing and sneezing.

If you travelled from the Gold Coast to Auckland on Saturday afternoon be warned, one traveller has been confirmed to have contracted measles.

The passenger departed Coolangatta Airport around midday on Saturday onboard Virgin Australia flight VA113, arriving in Auckland around 5.15pm.

Meanwhile, there had been 1227 confirmed measles cases in Auckland throughout the entire year, as of 2pm today.

Anyone who was on the flight and had not been immunised should watch out for symptoms, Auckland Regional Public Health Service said.

High fever, runny nose, cough and red sore eyes were among the first symptoms of measles, which can take up to 14 days to kick in.

Measles is a highly contagious disease which spread easily through the air, public health medicine specialist Dr Maria Poynter said.

Guy Body's take on measles and anti-vaxxers. Photo / Guy Body

"If you were on the flight and are unsure whether you're immune to measles, talk to your doctor or call Healthline on 0800 611 116 for advice.

"If you do start to develop symptoms that could be measles, contact your doctor, but be sure to call ahead to prevent potentially infecting others in the waiting room."

Since yesterday, there had been an increase of 24 measles cases in Auckland.

Broken down by District Health Board, Counties Manukau had the biggest increase in the past 24 hours with 17 new confirmed cases.

Waitemata followed with five new cases and Auckland only two.

The total number of confirmed cases for the DHBs today were as follows, 837 for Counties Manukau, 204 for Waitemata and 186 for Auckland.

Elsewhere, last week between September 14 and 20, there were 133 new measles cases reported nationwide.

As of Friday, the total year to date of confirmed cases was 1414, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) said.

This year there had been 482 hospitalisations (34.1 per cent) as a result of measles, a report published by ESR said.

There was two ongoing outbreaks in the country at the time.