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Jab plea as measles cases soar

Parents are being urged to give their children the MMR jab after figures showed measles cases have more than trebled in the last 11 weeks.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the number of confirmed cases of children suffering measles was higher than expected for this time of year.

Latest reports showed 480 cases of measles in the UK so far this year - compared with 756 cases during the whole of 2006, which was the highest year on record.

Health experts urged parents to get their children vaccinated against the disease, which can be life-threatening.

Up until June 10 this year, 136 cases of measles had been confirmed by the HPA. But as of August 30, just over 11 weeks later, this had more than trebled to 480 confirmed cases.

An HPA spokeswoman said it was too early to say whether 2007 would prove to be the highest year on record since monitoring began in 1995. However, she said the current figures showed it was following the trend set last year.

Dr Mary Ramsay, a consultant epidemiologist at the HPA, said: "Over the summer holidays we have seen more cases of measles being reported than we would normally expect.

"This means it is crucial that children are fully immunised with two doses of MMR before they return to school."

The HPA said it was difficult to confirm reasons why there has been such a jump in recent weeks. A high number of cases has been noted in communities where vaccine uptake is lower, including travelling families.

But, the HPA said, cases are also currently occurring in unvaccinated school-age children across all social groups. Over the course of the year, there have also been small outbreaks in primary schools and cases in people returning from other countries

I saw this on the news yesterday and I think they chose the wrong person to speak to as she was not as "in your face" about it as the government would like.

She used the word "rare" to describe the chances of death from Measles and from other complications.

I don't think they will use her again.