The half-term break could not have come soon enough for some primary schools and health administrators in Croydon, where the vaccination rate for measles is lower than most of our neighbouring boroughs.
Rash outlook: all the measles cases confirmed in Enfield have involved under-10s who have not been vaccinated
Outbreaks of the measles virus among schoolchildren on the other side of the capital, in Enfield and in Haringey, have raised the alarm across London. A half-term week with children off school, an infection “fire break” of sorts, is hoped may help to stem or slow the spread of this nasty disease.
There is no treatment for measles, only the vaccination to prevent catching it.
The measles outbreak has raised the important issue of vaccination uptake, or the lack of uptake. Thirty, even 20 years ago, measles had become something of history, a folk memory of our grandparents, as the MMR vaccine – measles, mumps and rubella – had an uptake of 90% to 95%, enough to quell and prevent the risk of an outbreak as we are seeing now.
Today, according to the UK Health Security Agency, the London uptake rate for children having had the MMR vaccine by the time they are five years old is just 71.3%. In some boroughs, the uptake is much worse than that.
In Croydon, the MMR vaccine uptake rate is 72.6%.
In Sutton, the vaccination rate is 81.7%. In Bromley, it is 82.5%.
In Lambeth, the rate is 75.5%. In Southwark, 77%.
In Enfield, where the outbreak has been worst with 34 confirmed cases of measles, the vaccination uptake has been just 64.2%.
More than 60 suspected cases of measles have been reported by seven schools and a nursery in Enfield. All have involved unvaccinated children, all of them aged under 10. Some have needed hospital treatment.
Scientists suggest “vaccine scepticism”, much of it generated by Trumpian elements in the United States, especially since the covid pandemic, to have led to the alarming falling away of routine vaccination uptake.
Serious warning: UKHSA’s Dr Vanessa Saliba
Dr Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: “Measles is a nasty illness for any child, but for some it can lead to long-term complications and tragically death.
“It is so easily preventable with two doses of the MMRV vaccine.
“If your child has missed any of their doses, it’s important to catch up as soon as possible, giving them vital protection against this highly contagious disease, but also helping to protect more vulnerable children around them who are too young or unable to have the vaccine due to a health condition.”
Global health officials announced earlier this year Britain is no longer considered to have eliminated measles, as the vaccine uptake levels have fallen away so badly.
Dr Hilary Jones, the television doctor, said today, “Unless you’re vaccinating 95% of children, the risk of an outbreak is very strong, and that’s happening now in Enfield and other places in North London…
“One infected child can spread it to 18 others, which is why they’re now saying that if children are unvaccinated at school, and there’s a child with with measles at school, they’ll have to be off school for up to 21 days, which is the incubation period.
“Most importantly, measles can kill people.
“It can cause meningitis, it can cause pneumonia, it can cause ear infections. It’s not always a trivial illness. At the best of times, it causes fever, it causes earache, a streaming nose, a raging sore throat. It’s horrible.
Preventative medicine: MMR vaccines are provided free by the NHS
“Nobody needs it, but we’ve got vaccine hesitancy, because it’s easy to scare people about vaccines.”
The NHS advises that if you suspect that you or your child may have measles, stay at home, call your GP or NHS 111 before visiting. Do not just show up, as this can spread the virus in waiting rooms.
Isolate for at least four days after the rash appears to prevent spreading this highly infectious, potentially serious virus.
If symptoms become severe, such as breathing difficulties, extreme drowsiness, or confusion, call 999.
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So, why is the MMR uptake so low – relatively speaking – in Croydon? Are we more stupid, more susceptible to social media and conspiratory theories than our neighbours? All these could be true of course. BTW vaccine sceptism isn’t so much ‘Trumpian’ as a product of his insane Health Secretary.
It wasn’t Trump’s insane health secretary who once, in all seriousness, suggested drinking bleach as some kind of “cure” for covid
The blame lies squarely with the no-longer-a -Dr, Andrew Wakefield AND, surprise, surprise, the Daily Mail.
Wakefield was a venal charlatan, who conducted an unethical study on a cohort of seven (IIRC) children; I’ll spare you the details, but he basically came up with an extremely tenuous link between gastroenterinal bacteria and the injection of the MMR vaccine, and made a huge leap from that to some autistic behaviours. The “study” was published in The Lancet, and that should have been the end of it; except… the article caught the eye of a DM hack, and, next thing you know: “MMR CAUSES AUTISM!!!!!!!!” screamed the Fail. And that was that.
That was about 20 years ago (I think), In that time, immunisation rates have plummeted worldwide, diseases that were eradicated or nearly, have reappeared, and vaccine scepticism is a thing, right up to, as you say, the president of the USA, the descendant of a once proud American dynasty, and other morons it would take too long to list.
The people? Pfft, what do they know? They’ve had so much bs drummed into their skulls that trying to straighten them up is a lost cause. It’s the children I feel sorry for. 😔