Half a million UK children haven’t had measles jab

HALF a million children in the UK have not been vaccinated against measles amid a rise in online ‘anti-vaxx’ scare stories.

A global surge in the disease is being fuelled by plummeting vaccination rates, the charity Unicef has warned.

Between 2010 and 2017, 527,000 children in the UK did not receive the potentially life-saving jab – with ‘fake news’ on social media partly to blame.

The UK comes third in a global ranking showing the number of unvaccinated children in high-income countries.

Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS in England, said: ‘With measles cases almost quadrupling in England in just one year, it is grossly irresponsible for anybody to spread scare stories about vaccines, and social media firms should have zero tolerance towards this dangerous content.’

Mr Stevens described vaccine rejection as a ‘growing public health timebomb’.

An estimated 169 million children around the world missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine between 2010 and 2017 – an average of 21.1 million a year.

Analysis by Unicef shows the US has the highest number of unvaccinated children – with 2,593,000 over the eight years.

The anti-vaxx movement has been blamed for the US being hit with more measles cases in the first three months of this year than in the whole of 2018. France was second, with 608,000 unvaccinated children, followed by the UK.

Experts believe 95 per cent of children need to be vaccinated to protect the wider

‘Growing public health timebomb’

population through ‘ herd immunity’. But in the UK uptake dropped to 87 per cent last year.

The number of measles cases in England more than trebled from 259 in 2017 to 966 last year. Globally, more than 110,000 measles cases were reported in the first three months of 2019 – up almost 300 per cent.

An estimated 110,000 people, mostly children, died from measles in 2017, a 22 per cent rise.

Unicef said the rates reflected ‘lack of access, poor health systems, complacency, and fear or scepticism about vaccines’.

The charity’s executive director Henrietta Fore said: ‘The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children. If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike.’

Two doses of MMR vaccine, usually given at ages two and five, are required to ensure full protection.

Mary Ramsay, Public Health England’s head of immunisations, said: ‘The UK achieved WHO measles elimination status in 2017, so the overall risk of measles is low. However, we will continue to see cases, particularly in unimmunised individuals.’