A \u201cnational call to action\u201d is needed across the country to ensure children are vaccinated against potentially deadly measles, the head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, warned that measles is spreading among unvaccinated communities, and urged parents to check whether their children have had the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vaccination rates across the country have been dropping, but there are particular concerns about some regions, including parts of London and the West Midlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dame Jenny told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme that people have \u201cforgotten what measles is like\u201d, and that children can be unwell for a week or two with symptoms including a nasty rash, high fever and ear infections. She added that the virus is highly infectious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There can also be serious complications, hospital admissions and death. \u201cWe had established measles elimination status in the UK, but in fact our vaccination rates now have dropped on average to about only 85% of children arriving at school having had the two MMR doses.
\u201cIn the West Midlands, that\u2019s in some areas down to 81%, (and) if we go down to the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board area, that\u2019s just over 70%.
\u201cSo we are well under the recommended coverage for MMR vaccination that the WHO (World Health Organisation) recommends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said uptake of MMR vaccines does differ among communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked which communities, she said: \u201cThis is an important point, I think, for the West Midlands, for those in Muslim communities, they will be not keen to take up one of the MMR vaccines that we offer which has a pork-based derivative.
\u201cBut it\u2019s really important that they\u2019re aware there is a non-porcine vaccine which is available to them and very effective.
\u201cSo it\u2019s that sort of understanding and ensuring that knowledge is available to people so they can make choices.\u201d
She said the vaccine programme in the UK is \u201cclearly not\u201d where the UKHSA wants it to be, adding \u201cwe want it to be 95% (coverage)\u201d.
She added: \u201cIt\u2019s quite common with vaccination programmes that when the risk is perceived to have gone away, then the concern to get vaccinated may drop off and so one of the reasons for flagging this today is to remind people that cases are still out there. This is a serious illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UKHSA carried out a specific risk assessment last July in London because up to 20% of children were entering school unvaccinated.
Dame Jenny said this was a \u201csignificant risk\u201d to the population in London.
\u201cThankfully, many families have come forward and children have been vaccinated, but the rates remain low,\u201d she added.
\u201cNow\u2026 predictably, we\u2019re seeing that swing move to other, particularly inner city areas, where we know vaccination rates are low.
\u201cThis 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)\u2026 and many of those now, of course, will be in frontline work, so things like young teachers, and it\u2019s really important that they also get vaccinated with MMR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Official figures show uptake of the vaccine is at its lowest point in over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022\/23, some 84.5% of youngsters in England had received both doses of the jab by the time they were five years old \u2013 the lowest level since 2010\/11. Some 92.5% had received one dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Ronny Cheung, officer for health services at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the PA news agency earlier this week that measles \u201cat best will cause children great discomfort and at worst deaths\u201d and the virus is \u201calmost entirely preventable\u201d with the MMR vaccine. A \u201cnational call to action\u201d is needed across the country to ensure children are vaccinated against potentially deadly measles, the head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges","category-health-wellbeing"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.toddingtonbaptist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
He said a combination of factors could be behind the low uptake, but parents are less likely to report concerns over a 1998 report by Andrew Wakefield linking it with autism.
The claims have been discredited and Wakefield was struck off the medical register.
Dr Cheung said parents were more likely to report wider concerns or say they were unaware that they could catch up on vaccines if they had missed the initial offer.
Helen Bedford, professor of children\u2019s health at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, added: \u201cMeasles is a potentially very serious infection.
\u201cAbout 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.
\u201cMeasles is often more severe in adults.
\u201cApart from managing the symptoms of measles, there is no treatment.<\/strong>
\u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"