UK grapples with measles; virus declared ‘eradicated’ in 2017
- The virus declared eradicated in the UK in 2017 and 2000 in the US
- The UK saw more than 42,000 cases in 2023, compared to 941 in 2022
- Cases of the virus spiked by more than 40% globally last year
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LONDON (NewsNation) — Health officials in the U.K. are urging millions of parents to book their children for missed measles shots during a sharp increase in the number of cases and low vaccination numbers.
The BBC reports that about 42,200 people were infected with measles in 2023, compared to 941 cases in all of 2022.
The combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine is offered in the U.K. in two doses to all children, first at 12 months and then again at 3 years. Vaccination rates have dropped to about 85% nationally and are far lower in parts of London, according to U.K. Health Security Agency chief executive Jenny Harries.
That is “too low to maintain safe population coverage — we want that at about 95%” as advised by the World Health Organization, she said.
Public health officials say more than 3.4 million children under 16 years old are unprotected and at risk of catching preventable diseases.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.K. in 2017, meaning the disease was no longer native to the country. It was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
Cases of the virus spiked by more than 40% globally last year and rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the pandemic, leading health agencies said in November.
The highly infectious disease triggered epidemics in 37 countries last year, versus 22 countries in 2021. It sickened 9 million children and killed 136,00, mostly in poorer countries, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.
The data is also concerning health officials in the U.S.
In data published in November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that 3% of kindergarten children were able to get excused from getting a vaccine in their state during the 2022-2023 school year. In the 2011-2012 school year, it was 1.6%.
Exemptions increased in 40 states as well as the District of Columbia. Ten states reported an exemption from at least one vaccine for at least 5% of kindergartners, the CDC wrote.
More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around COVID-19 vaccines, experts say.
NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
