Mumps up nearly 400% in one year
■5,000 cases with students hit hard ■Anti- vaxx quack blamed for spread
MUMPS cases have soared nearly five-fold in a year as babies who missed out on jabs in the MMR scare reach adulthood.
Outbreaks have ripped through universities, taking cases to the highest level in a decade. The total last year rose to 5,042 from 1,066 in 2018 – an increase of 372 per cent.
Experts said the surge was the grim legacy of disgraced scientist Andrew Wakefield. His claim of a link between vaccination and autism has long been disproved and he was stripped of his medical licence.
Babies who failed to receive the MMR jab in the late 1990s and early 2000s – the so- called ‘Wakefield generation’ – are driving the outbreaks as they start leaving home and going to university.
‘The rise in mumps cases is alarming and yet another example of the longterm damage caused by anti-vaxx information,’ said Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night. ‘Science proves that vaccines are the best form of defence against a host of potentially deadly diseases and are safer and more effective than ever before. Those who claim otherwise are risking people’s lives.’
Vaccine ‘hesitancy’ persists and uptake of the MMR jab is falling amid social media campaigns run by ‘anti-vaxxers’.
The Daily Mail is running a major campaign to boost jab uptake.
Any child or adult who missed out on the MMR vaccine is still eligible – and experts stress that there is no harm in having a repeat dose if there is doubt over whether you have had it already.
Public Health England officials said there were 5,042 laboratory- confirmed cases of mumps in England in 2019 – the highest number since 2009.
The 15-24 age group accounted for 62 per cent of cases. The rise looks set to continue in 2020, with 546 confirmed cases in January 2020 compared with 191 during the same month of 2019.
Mumps is an extremely contagious viral infection that used to be common in children before the introduction of MMR.
Typical cases result in fever, headache, puffy cheeks and a tender, swollen jaw – symptoms which are very similar to glandular fever or tonsilitis.
In about one in seven cases mumps can cause viral meningitis in the outer protective layer of the brain. In rare cases – around one in 1,000 – this spreads to the brain itself, causing potentially fatal encephalitis.
Roughly one in 20 victims experience temporary hearing loss, which becomes permanent in one in 20,000. A double dose of MMR provides 88 per cent protection from mumps, falling to 78 per cent for just one dose.
Experts stress that if 95 per cent of the population is vaccinated everyone would be protected through ‘herd immunity’.
This would mean the virus would not have enough ‘hosts’ to infect and would eventually die out. Diseases that have been eradicated this way include smallpox and polio.
But only 86 per cent of children in England had received both MMR jabs by their fifth birthday – well short of the 95 per cent threshold. In a statement, Public Health England said: ‘Many of the cases in 2019 were seen in the so- called “Wakefield cohorts” – young adults born in the late 1990s and early 2000s who missed out on the MMR vaccine when they were children.’
Professor Helen Bedford, a vaccine expert at University College London, said: ‘It is of concern that we are seeing large numbers of cases of mumps.
These are mainly occurring among older teens and young adults who either had no doses of MMR vaccine when they were young or only had one dose.’
She said people can still get mumps even if fully vaccinated, but added: ‘It is usually much milder in previously vaccinated people, so the best way to avoid mumps is to get the vaccine.’
Claire Sosienski Smith, who is vice president of the National Union of Students, said: ‘With the sharp rise in mumps infections, the most important thing students can do is to get the MMR vaccine to protect themselves and others on campus against mumps, as well as measles and rubella.
‘If you are unsure whether you have been vaccinated, contact your GP to check your vaccinations are up to date.’
Uptake of MMR fell from 91 per cent to less than 80 per cent at the height of the scare.
‘The best form of defence’
MUMPS is a highly dangerous infection. In mild cases it causes severe aches and pains. But in the worst instances it leads to brain damage and death.
Usually, it’s stamped out by routine childhood inoculations. But frighteningly, the number of victims in Britain has quadrupled in a year to 5,042. Outbreaks have ripped through universities, the surge linked to a drop in the uptake of the MMR jab two decades ago – when the current generation of students was born.
This is the baleful legacy of Andrew Wakefield, a disgraced doctor who risked children’s health by falsely persuading anxious parents that the vaccine was linked to autism. In common with other media, the Mail took his study seriously at the time and wrongly gave it credence.
Today, a worryingly large minority of parents, heads turned by the ‘antivaxx’ lobby’s evil social media lies, still refuse to immunise their sons and daughters.
To prevent a ticking time bomb, the Mail is campaigning to boost vaccination uptake. The alternative – our children stricken and sick – is too horrific to risk.