Take- up of MMR jab ‘ needs to improve’

HEALTH: Experts have warned that vaccination rates need to be improved despite the proportion of children having their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella jab increasing for the first time in six years.

Data shows that the proportion having the first dose of the vaccine by age two has risen to 90.6 per cent in 2019/ 20.

HEALTH EXPERTS have warned that vaccination rates need to be improved despite the proportion of children having their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella jab increasing for the first time in six years.

New data from NHS Digital shows that, while coverage is still below the 95 per cent needed for herd immunity, the proportion having the first dose of the vaccine by age two has risen from 90.3 per cent in 2018/ 19 to 90.6 per cent in 2019/ 20.

This is the first time in six years that MMR coverage in England has increased, following a peak of 92.7 per cent in 2013/ 14.

Dr Doug Brown, the chief executive of the British Society for Immunology, welcomed the “small increase in uptake for most routine vaccinations” but stressed the upward trend needed to continue.

He added: “The slight rise in uptake of routine childhood vaccinations in England is a step in the right direction but we must still take urgent action to overcome the ongoing trend of missing the 95 per cent target set out by the World Health Organisation.

“Low levels of vaccination coverage matter as it means diseases such as measles have the potential to spread within our communities, infecting unvaccinated people, including vulnerable individuals unable to have vaccinations such as young babies or people with cancer.”

Dr Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles.

The findings were later discredited and the General Medical Council ( GMC) struck him off, ruling he had been “dishonest, irresponsible and showed callous disregard for the distress and pain” of children.

Regional data shows an increase in coverage in six of the nine English regions in 2019/ 20 compared with the previous year.

Coverage fell in the remaining three regions, NHS Digital said.

The North- East had the highest level of coverage at 95.1 per cent and was the only region to exceed the national target of 95 per cent.

London had the lowest level of coverage at 83.6 per cent, but this was up from 83 per cent the previous year.

In Yorkshire, the rate of coverage was 92.6 per cent, down from 92.8 per cent the previous year.

Across England, 94.5 per cent of children aged five had received the first dose of the MMR vaccine in 2019/ 20 – the same percentage as the previous year.

In 2019/ 20, eight out of nine regions achieved 95 per cent coverage.