Measles: Birmingham outbreak declared a national incident and likely to spread

Outbreaks of measles will spread to other towns and cities in the UK without urgent action to increase measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination uptake, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned.

On 19 January the agency declared the current outbreak in Birmingham1 a national incident, allowing it to put more resources into tackling the problem.2

As of 18 January there have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases in …