Statement on the current worldwide Measles outbreaks
MEASLES ON THE RISE:
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO), HAS REPORTED THAT MEASLES CASES ARE ON THE RISE WORLDWIDE AND IN EUROPE ALONE, OUTBREAKS HAVE SURGED TO A 20-YEAR HIGH.
The WHO states that reported measles cases (provided by each country) currently show that about 229,000 cases have already been reported, compared with 170,000 for 2017. Worryingly the 2018 number is likely to rise as the reporting deadline ends April ’19.
With a 50% increase in measles cases last year, it is important to understand the benefits of vaccinating against measles:
RICHARD DAWOOD, OUR MEDICAL DIRECTOR EXPLAINS;
“I recently heard about a patient suffering a bad attack of shingles. She didn’t believe in doctors, medicines or vaccines, I was told, and was languishing at home, with a dreadful, crusted rash across her body, and burning with pain. She had stuck to her beliefs and refused to take antiviral medication that could have aborted the attack or reduced the probability of ending up with long term nerve damage and lingering pain. Shingles can strike more than once, but since she doesn’t believe in vaccines (there is a good one that is 95% effective) she will have to take her chances of a recurrence in future. I disagree with her opinions, but her latest actions will harm nobody but herself.
But measles is different: when it comes to vaccination, personal choices and opinions have a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of others – individually as well as for entire communities. Measles vaccination is a major public health issue. Memories of the past outbreaks, epidemics, tragic disability and loss of life that drove research and ground-breaking vaccine development now belong to a previous generation. In these days of “fake news”, “influencers” and social networks, it has become too easy to undermine confidence in matters of public health. In the case of measles, concerns about vaccine safety are down to the “fake research” of Andrew Wakefield, who was struck off the medical register for concocting a spurious link with autism in the 1990s. But the damage was long-lasting.
The complications of measles are most severe in babies who are not yet old enough to be vaccinated, and children with reduced immunity. When the rate of vaccination in the general population falls below 95%, outbreaks occur and can easily spread, with the highest impact on those most vulnerable populations, undermining years of hard work around the world to bring measles under control.
That is what is happening now”.
Written by: Richard Dawood, Medical Director and specialist in travel medicine
VACCINATION AGAINST MEASLES
‘The highly contagious disease can cause severe diarrhoea, pneumonia and vision loss. It can be fatal in some cases and remains an important cause of death among young children”, according to the WHO.
The disease can be easily prevented with two doses of a safe and efficient vaccine that has been in use since the 1960s’.
Make sure you are up-to-date with your vaccinations including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Although the NHS immunisation schedule offers the vaccine to children from 12 months of age, the MMR can be given from 6 months. If you have not had measles or if you have not had two doses of MMR, you may be at risk. Measles is easily passed from person to person and can be a serious illness in adults as well as children. It is never too late to have the vaccine.
For more Measles Advice