Anti-vaxxer teacher encourages people to ‘share’ their measles with her kids

A private schoolteacher in Victoria has been blasted by health officials after appearing to encourage the deliberate spread of measles to children.

A number of people in Melbourne’s south and outer-east suburbs were put at risk of contracting the deadly disease after a “highly contagious” man visited several spots around the city earlier this month.

The teacher, a mother-of-two and anti-vaxxer, responded to a post on the Australia: Childcare for Unvaccinated Children Facebook page, in which the poster refers to this recent outbreak and asks people to “share” their measles.

“With the recent measles outbreak near Dandenong, please contact/message me if your children get measles and you are happy to share,” the post read.

The private school teacher then commented saying, “Same plz!”

Anyone who visited a list of areas, including Dandenong, between February 8 and 12 was warned by Health Victoria to look out for symptoms of the disease.

Measles is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause serious illness, particularly in very young children and adults.

People can develop pneumonia and other serious complications from the disease, which can often lead to hospitalisation and even death.

But, as can be seen from the Facebook post, there are people that are looking to use the outbreak as a way to deliberately infect their children.

Just as chickenpox parties were popular before a vaccination was introduced, it seems that some parents are doing the same with measles by trying to create a natural immunity by purposefully infecting children.

Speaking to the Herald Sun, Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy blasted the woman as “irresponsible”, saying people, particularly teachers, should know better.

“People who spread harmful anti-vaccination lies will not be tolerated in Victoria,” she said.

“Those who are peddling these lies are putting the health and safety of Victorian children at risk and we won’t stand for it.”

The disease is now uncommon in Australia because of the widespread use of the measles vaccine but an alarming rise in anti-vaxxers deliberately infecting their children could put countless others at risk.