Warning to parents as measles cases shoot up amid slump in vaccination rates

Measles cases in England and Wales have more than doubled in the last year amid slowing vaccination rates in children.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data show there were 1,603 suspected cases in England and Wales in 2023.

The figure is more than twice as high as the 735 logged in 2022 and an almost five-fold rise compared to the 360 cases reported in 2021. 

Birmingham Children’s Hospital warned on Friday that it had treated 50 children for measles in the past month – the highest toll in years – as the West Midlands battles its worst outbreak since at least the mid-1990s. London is also battling a surge.

Health chiefs blamed low uptake of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for allowing the disease to get a ‘foothold in communities’ and warned parents that hospitalisations and fatalities will rise unless more children are vaccinated.

At least 95 per cent of the population needs to be vaccinated to prevent outbreaks, under public health guidance.

But nationally, the proportion of five-year-olds who are fully-jabbed has fallen to 84.5 per cent — the lowest in more than a decade. The trend has partly been blamed on the rise of anti-vaxx beliefs.

The suspected cases are based on official notifications by doctors making a diagnosis from clinical symptoms. 

While not all are later confirmed to be measles by laboratory tests, health chiefs warn that levels are clearly rising. 

The MMR jab is first offered to children aged one, with a second injection available soon after they turn three.

Two doses offer up to 99 per cent protection against the measles, mumps and rubella, which can lead to meningitis, hearing loss and problems during pregnancy. 

UKHSA data shows that cases in the West Midlands have surged.

In December, 57 suspected cases were detected, representing more than a quarter of all 217 cases detected across England and Wales that month.

Dr Naveed Syed, a consultant in communicable disease control at the UKHSA, based in the West Midlands, warned he was seeing ‘cases of measles rising every day’.

He added: ‘Uptake of MMR in the ­region is much lower than needed to protect the population, which is giving this serious disease a chance to get a foothold in our communities.’

Dr Syed urged the parents of school children to ensure they have had both doses. 

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, chair of the Government’s vaccine taskforce, told The Times: ‘If vaccine coverage does not improve, it is likely that deaths and other complications from measles will reappear.

‘This disease can be prevented, indeed in 2016 we showed that it can be completely blocked from our shores. 

‘With the virus transmitting in England today, it would be a tragedy if any child were to die from measles when we have the tools in front of us to stop it.’

Latest NHS Digital shows that up to four in ten children in parts of England haven’t had both MMR jabs by the time they turn five.

Just 56.3 per cent of youngsters that age in Hackney, east London, were fully-protected against measles, mumps and rubella in 2022/23.

After Hackney came Camden (63.6 per cent) and Enfield (64.8 per cent).

Outside of London, the lowest uptake rates for both doses among five year olds were logged in Liverpool (73.6 per cent), Manchester (74.5 per cent) and Birmingham (75.1 per cent).

Worries about low uptake in the capital saw councils send letters to parents warning unvaccinated children may be excluded from school for three weeks in the event of an outbreak in their classroom. 

This advice was first issued by UKHSA chiefs in 2019 but councils flagged it to parents amid a spike in measles cases. 

Measles can infect nine in ten unjabbed children in a classroom if just one classmate is infectious. 

In November, new guidelines were drawn up for NHS staff when dealing with children with respiratory infections, urging them to ‘think measles’.

The document, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, asked health professionals to check the vaccination records of all children arriving at hospital.

Any showing symptoms of the disease should be immediately isolated while staff ought to wear personal protective equipment, it urged.

Measles, which mostly produces flu like symptoms and a rash, can cause very serious and even fatal health complications if it spreads to the lungs or the brain. 

One in five children who catch measles will need to go to hospital, with one in 15 developing serious complications like meningitis or sepsis.

Medics have been increasingly concerned that measles, which has long been kept at bay because of these vaccines, could make a return due to declining uptake. 

Uptake of the MMR jab collapsed in the wake of study by the now discredited medic Andrew Wakefield which falsely linked the jabs to autism.

MMR uptake in England was about 91 per cent prior to Wakefield’s study being published but plummeted to 80 per cent in the aftermath.

While rates have recovered slightly, thanks to concentrated efforts by health officials, a rise in anti-vax sentiment during the Covid pandemic is thought to have contributed to some parents opting not to get their children jabbed. 

An NHS England spokesman said: ‘Measles is incredibly infectious, can cause serious illness and has no specific treatment — so the best possible ­protection is vaccination.

‘The MMR vaccine is safe and has been used to protect children for decades, so it’s very important to check your child’s vaccination status and get them caught up with any missed doses.’