Measles rise ‘due to NHS problems, not anti-vaxxers’
THE rise in measles is being fuelled by a shortage of nurses, health workers and difficulty getting GP appointments rather than anti-vaccination lobbyists, public health experts have warned.
There were 966 confirmed cases of measles in 2019, nearly four times higher than the previous year.
But although Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has blamed “antivaxxers” for stoking public fears about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, medical authorities said many parents simply could not get their children vaccinated when they wanted to do so.
At a London briefing on whether vaccination should be compulsory, Helen Bedford, professor of children’s health at University College London’s Institute of Child Health, said just one per cent of unvaccinated children was down to anti-vaxxers. “I think there’s a lot of pressure on the health system. “That by far outweighs anti-vax sentiments in the UK,” she added.
Helen Donovan, of the Royal College of Nursing, said doctors’ surgeries had to become more flexible to allow parents to take children for jabs at evenings and weekends, and increase the number of nurses and health workers.
“It’s about having a flexible system,” Ms Donovan added.
The panel of experts called for vaccination stations at public places such as supermarkets, parks and even music festivals like Glastonbury to target teenagers and young people who missed out on jabs during the anti-vaccination crisis of the Nineties, when Dr Andrew Wakefield suggested an unfounded link to autism.
Mr Hancock has said the Government
‘There’s a lot of pressure on the health system. That by far outweighs anti-vax sentiments in the UK’
is considering making vaccinations compulsory, but experts said that could make the problem worse, with concerned parents taking their children out of school, and creating a loss of trust in the NHS.
David Elliman, consultant paediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said mandatory jabs should not be introduced to “prop up failures in the system”.
NHS data shows that 90.3 per cent of children had their first MMR vaccine dose in 2018-19, down from 91.2 per cent the year before and continuing a five-year downward trend.