26 November 2025
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #32714 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00102668 Thank you for your request of 3 November 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for
the following information about measles under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).
“There was an article Mon 27 Oct 2025 article on the One News sharing link here
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/27/two-measles-cases-at-wellington-colleges-prompts-stay-
home-order/
Please provide information on the Measles.
1. Kindly share the notices from the DHB public health officer of medical officer of health for
this particular “stay home order” in Wellington.
2. Kindly share any other public health notices on measles in the past 4 weeks.
3. Kindly share the infection fatality rate for the measles. Health NZ / Ministry of health experts
were quoted in One News program “Experts stressing that measles is far more deadly than
Covid 19”. The health experts appearing on this One News segment were: Dr Sharon Sime
National Public Health Service [and] Dr Nikki Turner of National immunization service
4. Kindly share the infection fatality rate for Covid 19, which was used as the comparator by
the experts in the above statement "more deadly than covid 19". The deadliness of a
disease is measured with its infection fatality rate.
5. Kindly share the last recorded measles death (primary cause of death) in New Zealand
according to the notifiable disease to the Medical Officer of Health.”
Response
For the sake of clarity, I wil respond to each question in turn.
1.
Kindly share the notices from the DHB public health officer of medical officer of health for
this particular “stay home order” in Wellington.
The requested document is attached as
Appendix 1.
2.
Kindly share any other public health notices on measles in the past 4 weeks.
The requested information is attached as
Appendix 2.
3.
Kindly share the infection fatality rate for the measles. Health NZ / Ministry of health experts
were quoted in One News program “Experts stressing that measles is far more deadly than
Covid 19”. The health experts appearing on this One News segment were: Dr Sharon Sime
National Public Health Service [and] Dr Nikki Turner of National immunization service.
4.
Kindly share the infection fatality rate for Covid 19, which was used as the comparator by
the experts in the above statement "more deadly than covid 19". The deadliness of a
disease is measured with its infection fatality rate.
Please note that Health NZ’s National Public Health Service experts have not claimed that measles
is more deadly than COVID-19.
The infection fatality rate (IFR) is derived by calculating the number of people who have died from
a disease as a proportion of the number of people who have been infected by the disease. It
requires knowledge of the true number of individuals who have been infected, as opposed to the
number of individuals who have been diagnosed with the disease.
The true number of infections is very difficult to measure directly for COVID-19. This is because
infected people may not have symptoms, are unaware they are infected, and are not tested.
Further, many cases with symptoms are either not tested, or have self-tested but not reported the
test. Therefore, the IFR is normally estimated using other inference methods rather than directly
measured.
Health NZ does not hold any estimates of the infection fatality rate of COVID-19 for any given time
and does not hold data regarding calculated infection fatality risks or rates for measles either.
Accordingly, the information requested these parts is refused under section 18(g) of the OIA as it is
not held by Health NZ and we have no grounds for believing it is held by another agency subject to
the OIA.
5.
Kindly share the last recorded measles death (primary cause of death) in New Zealand
according to the notifiable disease to the Medical Officer of Health.”
The last measles death in New Zealand was in the 1991 epidemic, when seven deaths were
reported.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Danielle Coe
Manager (OIAs), Government Services
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
