Published 1 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2820
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2820

News

Cases of measles in England and Wales are highest for 13 years

Zosia Kmietowicz

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Public health officials have warned that there is a "real risk" of a large measles epidemic in Britain after the number of children presenting with the disease rose sharply this year.

Figures from the Health Protection Agency show that 1049 cases of measles were confirmed in England and Wales to the end of October 2008, the highest total since the current system of monitoring the disease was introduced in 1995. The number of cases in the first 10 months of the year surpasses last year’s total of 990 cases. There were 740 cases in 2006 and 78 in 2005.

Most cases of measles have been seen in London (626), followed by the north west (106) and south east (76) of England.

Mary Ramsay, an immunisation expert at the agency, said, "This rise is due to relatively low MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine uptake over the past decade, and there . . . [Full text of this article]


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