Measles epidemic is feared as nursery children are hospitalised

By Melanie Defries, Nursery World, 27 May 2009

Outbreaks of measles among children in England and Wales have raised fears that the UK may be facing an epidemic.

Four children from a nursery in south-west Wales have been treated in hospital for the disease and a further 123 cases have been reported.
In England, 53 people in the north-east have caught measles since January and over 100 more cases are under investigation.
The number of cases is already more than four times the total in Wales last year and far exceeds the total number last year in the north-east, when only 17 cases were reported.
The four nursery children, who are all aged under two and attend Hapus Dyrfa, a 58-place nursery in Burry Port, were too young to have received both the MMR jabs that are routinely given at the ages of one and before children start school. The four have now been released from hospital and were due back at nursery on Monday (25 May).
Sioned Saer, one of the nursery's owners, said, 'When we were told that one of the children had measles we got in touch with the National Public Health Service in Wales and followed the advice that they gave us. They visited the nursery on a Friday evening to talk to the parents and immunise the children. By the end of the evening 40 children had been vaccinated.
'We think we are over the worst of it now. It was quite frightening, especially when we realised that four children had been affected - we wondered how bad it was going to get.'
Health officials are urging parents to ensure their children are fully protected against the disease by taking up the MMR jab.
Dr Roberta Marshall, Acting Regional Director for the Health Protection Agency in the north- east, said, 'The measles outbreak is very alarming, especially as the majority of these cases in England could have been prevented, since most were in children who were not fully protected with MMR.
'There are still many children out there who were not vaccinated as toddlers over the past decade and remain unprotected. Unfortunately, this means that measles, which is highly infectious, is spreading easily among these unvaccinated children. Many of these children are now teenagers and still remain at risk.'
To successfully eliminate measles, 95 per cent of a country's population needs to be immunised with two doses of the measles vaccine. Figures show that in Wales only 86 per cent of two-year olds have been given the MMR vaccine, compared with 95 per cent in Scotland. Take-up is even lower in England, where only 85 per cent of two-year-olds have had the MMR.

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