Health authorities are battling to contain a measles outbreak at the Orana Steiner School after a Year 9 student was admitted to hospital and at least three of his classmates were also diagnosed with the illness.
There were fears the viral disease could spread quickly because some families at the Weston school have chosen not to have their children vaccinated.
ACT chief health officer Paul Kelly said two cases had been notified on Tuesday and more were diagnosed yesterday.
Dr Kelly said measles was highly infectious and every young person who became ill could typically be expected to infect another 10.
Parents of any unvaccinated students in the same class as the students with measles had been asked to keep their children at home until the end of next week.
Symptoms of measles include fever, tiredness, runny nose and a cough, followed by a rash which appears between two and seven days later. People generally develop symptoms between seven and 18 days after being exposed to a person with infectious measles.
Up to a third of people with measles develop complications, which could include ear infections, diarrhoea and pneumonia.
About one in 1000 people with measles develops encephalitis.
Dr Kelly said the Orana Steiner School would continue to work closely with the Health Directorate to implement disease control measures.
Orana deputy director Marie-Anne Gigon said the school had alerted parents, the community and teachers on the need to be on the lookout for similar cases.
Dr Kelly said vaccination rates against measles, mumps and rubella in the ACT exceeded 90 per cent and only one case of measles had been reported in 2010.
''Two doses of measles, mumps rubella vaccine are recommended and are normally given to children at 12 months and five years of age ...'' he said.
''Since the beginning of 2011, there has been a reported increase in cases of measles nationwide. There have been 147 notifications of measles nationally to date compared to 69 for the whole of 2010.''
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