Measles ‘epidemic’ warning amid concerns over a fall in vaccinations as cases spike

Global health leaders have urged parents to get their children vaccinated against measles as they warn there is now an “epidemic” of the highly infectious disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised concerns that a dip in vaccination uptake during the Covid-19 pandemic could be behind the rise in measles cases, compared to what would usually be expected in the first two months of the year.

Problems accessing care and questions over vaccination which arose during the pandemic could have led to fewer people getting the jab, WHO suggested.

Dr David Nabarro, the WHO’s special envoy for Covid-19, said 73 million people globally had missed out on a measles vaccination due to Covid.

The WHO added there had been approximately 17,338 cases of measles globally in the first few months of 2022, which is significantly higher than previous years where numbers peaked at roughly 10,000.

Dr Nabarro told Sky News: “We’ve got a global measles epidemic, and that worries us because measles can be a very dangerous disease.

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“We’ve just got to get the vaccinations working again and that’s part of getting health services working again as Covid settles into a more regular position in our lives.”

Last week, the WHO and Unicef warned there is a “perfect storm of conditions for measles outbreaks”.

The organisations said that an increase in cases around the world in January and February were “worrying” and could trigger larger outbreaks.

Dr Nabarro explained that many parents had avoided taking their children for measles vaccinations due to the pandemic, with priorities shifting to tackling Covid.

But the WHO special envoy said: “My main request to everybody - please get your child vaccinated, please talk to the local nurse or doctor about vaccination options.

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“It really matters. It’s so important. And with measles, the more people who get vaccinated, the more likely we are to get the whole measles outbreaks under control.”

The UK Health Security Agency said uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine had dropped to the lowest level in a decade.

Coverage of the first dose of the MMR vaccine in two year olds dropped below 90 per cent, and 85.5 per cent of five-year-olds in England have had both doses of the jab, the health body said in February.

Meanwhile, an opinion piece recently published in The BMJ argued that even a small reduction in MMR uptake can have a “canary in a coalmine” effect and lead to disease outbreaks.