Rise in measles cases coupled with a downturn in MMR vaccinations by
StokieBlue 24 Jan 2024 11:48Unfortunately measles is seeing huge increase across the EU and UK, in 2017 the UK was declared measles free as it had seen no indigenous cases for 3 years. Now we have rising cases amongst the young across the country and the EU has reported 30,000 cases in 10 months last year up from just 900 the previous year.
In order to keep measles at bay through herd-immunity 95% of children need to be vaccinated and we are now just below 85% in the UK. There are a few reasons, low doctors surgery attendance and thus vaccinations during the pandemic, lingering doubts around MMR (even though they have been discredited) and kids being outside the age range when it's usually given.
Measles is a nasty virus and much more contagious than even the Omicron variants of covid (r0 of between 12 and 18) so it will spread quickly through those with no immunity.
The general message is it's not too late to get the MMR, even if kids are outside the usual ages when it's given that's not a problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/24/this-is-urgent-the-uk-is-scrambling-to-stem-an-alarming-tide-of-measles
SB
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