With an encouraging note for the immunization program in the UK, statistics are showing a handsomely good amount of children aged two years (about 90%) have received their vaccination for measles. Although this figure is the highest in 13 years still, this might not be enough as to reduce the spread of the disease the required uptake rate is of 95% as told by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
The head of the immunization department at the HPA, Dr. Mary Ramsay says “We’re very encouraged to see that UK MMR uptake has reached 90% in children aged two, indicating increasing levels of trust by parents in the immunization program.” She further adds “It’s that time of year when children are travelling on school trips and family holidays and we are reminding parents and young adults of the importance of immunization before they travel. We cannot stress enough that measles is serious and in some cases it can be fatal. Anyone who missed out on MMR as a child will continue to be at risk of measles, which explains why we are seeing these new cases in a broad age range.”
Two doses of MMR are given in the UK, first at the age of 12 months and then at the starting of school. If we compare with the previous quarter, there is an increase of 0.6 % in the number of children. This fear of an outbreak has resulted from the travelling in the summers to Europe that has taken place. Dr David Elliman, consultant community pediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London says that every 15th person will face the complications due to measles and one in every thousand will die because of this disease. The vaccination that is being provided will save them.
France which is very close to the UK has been officially declared as struck by the epidemic of measles. In the months from January to March, almost 5000 cases have been reported which is equal to the cases reported in the whole last year. In UK, almost 500 cases have been reported until now in this year.
According to the reports given by the World Health Organization, France has taken immediate steps to curtail the outbreaks of this disease. The country has started giving vaccinations to infants at the age of nine months only and also it has started offering vaccination to the unimmunized and under-immunized people of that age.