Urgent national action is needed so children are vaccinated against the potentially deadly measles virus.
Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), has urged parents to check if their kids have had the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab.
216 confirmed measles cases and 103 probable cases have developed in the West Midlands, including 80 percent of cases in Birmingham and 10 percent in Coventry.
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Most of the children who have been affected are under 10-years-old.
“The focus this morning obviously is on the West Midlands and I’m going there, but I think the real issue is we need a call to action right across the country,” Dame Jenny said.
“We had established measles elimination status in the UK, but in fact our vaccination rates now have dropped on average to about only 85 percent of children arriving at school having had the two MMR doses.
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“In the West Midlands, that’s in some areas down to 81 percent, [and] if we go down to the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board area, that’s just over 70 percent.
“So we are well under the recommended coverage for MMR vaccination that the WHO (World Health Organisation) recommends.”
She said the vaccine programme in the UK is 'clearly not' where the UKHSA wants it to be, adding 'we want it to be 95 percent (coverage)'.
“This is a call right across the country for all parents to check the vaccination rates of their children and also, one of our most unvaccinated populations are young adults (born around 1998 to 2004)… and many of those now, of course, will be in frontline work, so things like young teachers, and it’s really important that they also get vaccinated with MMR.”
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Helen Bedford, professor of children’s health at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, added: “Measles is a potentially very serious infection.
“About one in 1,000 people with measles develop inflammation of the brain and even in high-income countries like the UK, about one in 5,000 die from the infection.
“Measles is often more severe in adults.
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“Apart from managing the symptoms of measles, there is no treatment.
“There is no upper age limit for vaccination so if you or your loved ones have missed out, now is the time to get that protection.
“We can stop this infection in its tracks with vaccination.”
Between 2022 and 2023, around 84.5 percent of young people in England had received both doses of the jab by the time they were five years old.
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Although that sounds like a lot, it's the lowest level since 2010/11.
Some 92.5 percent had received one dose.
Anish Vij