FRIDAY JANUARY 11 2002

Measles epidemic ruled out despite fall in MMR jabs

BY HELEN RUMBELOW

THERE is no danger of a measles epidemic in Britain, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said yesterday in a significant reversal of previous advice.

Sir Liam Donaldson’s confident new approach contradicts the advice of disease experts from the Public Health Laboratory Service. For several years they have been issuing warnings that the low uptake of the MMR vaccine could lead to a measles outbreak in Britain. Currently, 84 per cent of children are getting the vaccine, the lowest level since it was introduced, and more than 10 per cent below the World Health Organisation minimum to protect against outbreaks.

Government officials believe, however, that alarmist talk, heightened by the furore when the Prime Minister refused to reveal whether his son had received the MMR jab, is scaring parents.

“There is no epidemic of measles and there is no concern that there will be,” said Sir Liam. “There are not large numbers of children dying of this disease.” This contrasts with the advice of Mike Catchpole, director of the laboratory service’s Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre, who said last year: “We are below the critical threshold at which point we run the risk of getting a large number of cases. We have to reverse that trend because there is a significant chance we will get a major measles outbreak or an epidemic.”

The laboratory service said last night that it was still concerned about measles outbreaks, especially in areas where uptake was particularly low. In some boroughs in the South East, it is below 75 per cent, although the latest figures suggest that there could be a slight rise this year.

Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from The Times, visit the Syndication website.