Rise In Measles Cases Causing Concern in UK

The World Health Organisation has warned of a “perfect storm” for measles, because the fewer people who receive protection from vaccines, the easier it is for outbreaks to happen.

Measles jumps from person to person so readily that 95% of people need to be immunised to block its spread. However, the UK Health Security Agency, UKHSA said only 85% of five-year-olds in England have received the recommended two doses.

The increase in UK measles cases is centred on London, but there have been infections elsewhere. Twelve of the cases were caught while abroad, with the rest reflecting spread within the UK.

“It is very concerning to see cases starting to pick up this year,” Dr Vanessa Saliba, from the UKHSA said.

She said: “We are calling on all parents and guardians to ensure their children are up to date with their two MMR doses. It’s never too late to catch up, and you can get the MMR vaccine for free on the NHS whatever your age.”

The UKHSA said it was particularly important to get vaccinated before the summer as measles may be more common in other countries, and festivals are a well-known source of measles outbreaks.

Measles vaccinations were introduced in the UK in 1968. Since then, they are estimated to have prevented 20 million measles cases and 4,500 deaths.

Prof Helen Bedford, from the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said there were many reasons the number of people being vaccinated had fallen.

She said: “We haven’t seen much measles around for a few years, partly because of the public health measures introduced to prevent Covid – so it may be that people do not see measles as a continuing threat and vaccination has become less important.

“During the pandemic, some children missed out on their routine vaccines for a variety of reasons and need to catch up [and] there may be some vaccine hesitancy.”

BBC/ Mercy Chukwudiebere