Minister for Health, Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete says they believe that measles came into Fiji through a relative of one of the people in Wailali Settlement in Wainadoi that has been confirmed to have measles.
He says the relative travelled from New Zealand.
Doctor Waqainabete stated this while presenting the Ministry of Health's development plans at the Tailevu Provincial Council meeting.
He says currently more than 1,300 people from the 1,400 people in the Wainadoi area have been vaccinated by their medical staff in the Serua/Namosi subdivision following a declaration of a measles outbreak there last Thursday.
He says that a team from the Ministry of Health is on the ground carrying out vaccination shots in the high-risk areas.
He urges the people of the Province of Tailevu to get their measles shots even though the disease is 100 kilometres away from them because the disease is an airborne disease.
Doctor Waqainabete says the last time there was a measles outbreak in Fiji was in 1875 where 40,000 people died and he is urging people to take the shot before history repeats itself.
