Stark measles warning that one in five children who get it will be hospitalised

22 January 2024 , 17:57

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The UK has lost its measles-free status and England is now in the grip of a national outbreak (Image: Getty Images)

One in five children who catch measles during the current outbreak will be hospitalised with it, the Government has warned.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield updated the House of Commons on the national outbreak and admitted “not enough” had been done to improve vaccination rates in the last decade.

It has seen the UK lose its measles-free status and England is now in the grip of a national outbreak. Nearly a third of under-16s are vulnerable to measles because they were not fully vaccinated with both MMR jab doses at ages one and three.

In a written ministerial statement, Ms Caulfield said: “Analysis shows that one infected child in a classroom can infect up to nine other unvaccinated children, making it one of the most infectious diseases worldwide and more infectious than Covid-19

“One in five children with measles will need to be admitted to a hospital for treatment – which could put additional pressure on the NHS. Measles is not just a childhood disease and can be serious at any age. If caught during pregnancy it can be very serious causing stillbirth, miscarriage and low birth weight.”

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Measles cases have doubled in a year amid the biggest outbreak since the 1990s and unvaccinated children in parts of the Midlands are being forced to isolate off school for up to three weeks. One in 5,000 children who catch it will die from the disease, while other complications include pneumonia and a dangerous brain infection.

Health minister Maria Caulfield, responding to an urgent question, told MPs: "For our MMR vaccine to be working, the World Health Organisation recommends at least 95% coverage to maintain population coverage; at the moment our MMR reach is 89.3% for the first dose of 24 months and 84.5% for the second dose at five years. This is not a new issue, this has been a gradual 10-year decline in coverage.”

Outbreaks centred on the Midlands and London could spread to other towns and cities if a catch up vaccine programme is not successful, health chiefs have warned.

Ms Caulfield added: "We've not been waiting. The NHS carried out a catch-up effort over the last 12 months, proactively contacting parents and carers of unvaccinated children aged five and younger, and we've seen a 10% increase in vaccination compared to the previous year. But that is not enough. NHS figures show almost 3.5 million under the age of 16 are unprotected and at risk of catching this serious and preventable disease."

Martin Bagot