How do I know if I'm protected from measles?

If you were born before 1966, you are likely immune from natural infection. If you were born after 1966, check your Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) record through your MyGov account, or ask your GP to check. If records are unavailable or unclear, a second MMR dose is safe to receive — it will not cause harm if you have been vaccinated before, and will establish protection if there is any doubt. This matters particularly before overseas travel to regions with active measles circulation.

My baby is under 12 months — are they protected if we travel overseas?

Infants under 12 months are not in the standard measles vaccination schedule, which starts at 12 months. However, if you are travelling to a country with active measles, a pre-travel dose is safe from six months of age. Your baby then continues the regular schedule at 12 months and 18 months as planned — the pre-dose does not replace those. Speak with your GP before any overseas travel with a baby under 12 months.

1 in 7 Australians aren't protected from measles. Are you one of them?

What just happened

New research from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, reveals that in 2019 approximately 6.7% of Australians were not sufficiently immunised from measles. That translates to around 1.7 million people.

The study is described as a world-first: the first time National Immunisation Register data has been combined with multiple serosurveys to produce a comprehensive, age-stratified picture of measles susceptibility across the Australian population. The result is the most detailed national snapshot of who is protected and who is not that Australia has ever had.

The headline finding is that herd immunity in 2019 sat at 93.3%. The World Health Organization considers 93–95% the threshold for maintaining measles elimination — so Australia was within range, but at the lower edge of it. Researchers describe this margin as “getting thinner.”

That was 2019. Childhood vaccination rates declined during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The current margin is likely narrower than the study can capture.

So far in 2026, 112 measles cases have been reported in Australia, most linked to overseas travel. The global picture has deteriorated: Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom have each recently lost their measles elimination status as outbreaks have grown.

Both-and

We have held — but barely

Australia has maintained measles elimination status since 2014. That is a genuine public health achievement, built on decades of two-dose MMR vaccination coverage in children and sustained immunisation programme infrastructure. The majority of Australians are protected. This is not a story about a system that has failed.

But 93.3% herd immunity at the thin edge of the WHO target is not a comfortable reserve. Lead researcher Zoë Croker was direct: “Our margin is getting thinner,” and “protection isn’t shared evenly across the population.” Herd immunity is a population average — and within that average are pockets of lower coverage where outbreaks can ignite. The elimination threshold is not a floor; it is a ceiling that cannot be maintained passively.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted childhood vaccination programmes globally. Australian catch-up efforts have partially restored coverage, but unevenly. The 2019 data is likely optimistic relative to where coverage sits today.

Several high-income peer countries provide the cautionary case. Canada, Spain, and the UK each met WHO targets for years before losing elimination status when sustained vaccination effort lagged. Their experience was not the result of a sudden collapse. It was the result of a gradual narrowing of the margin until a cluster of travel-imported cases found enough susceptible people to sustain community transmission.

The cohort that often doesn’t know it’s at risk

Measles tends to be framed as a childhood disease. That framing misleads. Most current Australian measles cases occur in adults — and specifically in Australians born from the late 1970s onwards.

The reason is historical. The measles vaccination schedule changed multiple times from the 1970s through the 1990s. Depending on the year and state, many people in this birth cohort received only one dose — or none at all. The two-dose schedule that provides reliable lifelong protection was not standard Australian policy until the mid-1990s. For anyone born roughly between 1977 and 1994 who has never checked their vaccination history, the immunisation record is often incomplete or absent.

This cohort is also, as researchers note, among Australia’s most frequent overseas travellers. Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Thailand, and many Pacific Island nations have active or ongoing measles transmission. Travel-linked importation of measles into Australia is not a theoretical risk in 2026 — the 112 reported cases so far this year reflect it as a practical reality.

Babies and young children travelling

Infants under 12 months sit outside the standard MMR schedule. But if a baby is travelling to a country with active measles, a pre-travel dose is safe and effective from six months of age. The child then continues the regular schedule at 12 months and 18 months as planned — the pre-dose is additional, not a replacement.

This is guidance worth raising with your GP before any international travel with a baby under 12 months, not as something to remember at the airport.

My two cents

The question worth sitting with this week: do you actually know your measles vaccination status?

Most people don’t. The Australian Immunisation Register has digitised records from 1996, but earlier records are often patchy or absent. If you were born before 1996, the most reliable way to establish protection is either to review what vaccination documentation you have with your GP, or to receive an MMR booster. It is safe to receive a second or third MMR dose even if you have been vaccinated before — there is no harm in confirming immunity with an additional dose.

GPs can check your AIR record and advise. If you’re planning overseas travel, particularly to Southeast Asia, South Asia, or the Pacific, and haven’t reviewed your vaccination history, this is a sensible addition to the pre-travel conversation.

The broader point: measles elimination in Australia has never been a passive achievement. It requires ongoing vaccination effort. When that effort dips — as it did during COVID-19 — the margin narrows. At 93.3% in 2019, that margin was already thin. The question for 2026 is whether the catch-up effort has been adequate, and whether individuals who have slipped through the cohort-specific gaps in historical coverage know to address them.

Verdict: yes — check your vaccination status, particularly if you were born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, and especially before overseas travel to measles-endemic regions.

Sources cited

Measles susceptibility in Australia — national immunisation register-linked seroprevalence study. ANZ Journal of Public Health, NCIRS, 2026. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1326020026002669?via%3Dihub
One in seven Australians unprotected from measles. newsGP, RACGP, 17 August 2026. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/one-in-seven-australians-unprotected-from-measles
National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NINDSS) Dashboard. Australian Government Department of Health. https://nindss.health.gov.au/pbi-dashboard/