Measles cases on the rise

A NEW warning has been issued about the danger from measles, which has been on the rise in the West Midlands despite an announcement last year that the disease had effectively been eliminated in the UK.

There have been more than twice as many measles cases recorded in England and Wales in the first part of this year than in the whole of 2017, largely due to infections transported from Europe.

European measles outbreaks have arisen in countries where MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine uptake has been low, including Romania, France, Greece and Italy.

In the UK, coverage for the first dose of MMR vaccine in five-year-olds has reached the World Health Organisation target of 95 per cent, and recent outbreaks are affecting mainly young adults who were not vaccinated when they were younger.

A new report on the threat, published in the British Journal of General Practice, Online First, urges doctors to be particularly vigilant for symptoms, which can easily be confused with the symptoms for other diseases associated with a rash.

Report co-author Nick Harding, honorary senior lecturer at Aston Medical School and chair of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said: “By the middle of last month, there had already been 82 cases of measles reported in the West Midlands alone this year.

“Bearing in mind that the disease has killed 48 people in the EU since 2016, it’s crucial that we don’t let measles get a foothold here again, and doctors need to be super-vigilant.”

The report’s lead author, Dr Maliha Moten, emphasised how important it was for doctors to be aware that measles is still a threat, saying: “The diagnosis of measles can be easily missed because of its similar presentation to other common febrile illnesses associated with a rash.”