Britain’s Health Security Agency issued a stark warning on Friday, highlighting a significant drop in measles vaccination rates in parts of London. They cautioned that unless immunization coverage is swiftly increased, the capital could face a potential surge of tens of thousands of measles cases.
According to the agency, certain groups of children in London have seen first-dose measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine coverage fall below 70%. Given measles’ high infectivity, health experts stress that at least 95% of the population needs to be immunized to prevent new outbreaks.
The Health Security Agency emphasized that while the risk of a U.K.-wide outbreak remains low, current immunization levels in London indicate a concerning possibility of “a measles outbreak of between 40,000 and 160,000 cases” within the city.
As of June 30, Britain has reported 128 measles cases this year, compared to 54 cases last year, with over 60% occurring in London.
In response, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) announced the launch of a targeted national campaign aimed at boosting measles vaccination rates in communities with the lowest coverage.
Officials pointed out that young adults aged 19 to 25 are particularly vulnerable to measles due to missed vaccinations following discredited claims made by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 linking the MMR vaccine to autism.
Despite the subsequent debunking of Wakefield’s research and his medical disbarment, his false claims fueled an anti-vaccination movement that significantly affected immunization rates in the U.K. and globally for years.
Globally, measles immunization efforts have suffered setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported last November that approximately 40 million children worldwide missed their measles vaccine doses in 2021.
In Europe, countries like Russia, Austria, Serbia, and the U.K. have witnessed a resurgence in measles cases this year, according to WHO reports.
Measles, an airborne disease, typically manifests with symptoms such as cough, red eyes, and a facial rash. Severe complications, which are more common in young children and older adults, include blindness, encephalitis, and pneumonia.
In 2021 alone, measles claimed over 128,000 lives globally, predominantly among children under five years old, WHO data reveals.
