Cases of measles have more than trebled in the past three months and doctors are urging parents to make sure their children have had both doses of the jab against measles, mumps and rubella before the return to school.
The Health Protection Agency has recorded 480 cases of measles this year - and more samples are arriving each day with about half testing positive. Up until June there had only been 136 cases but over the past 11 weeks this number has more than trebled. Doctors and HPA experts said they were concerned about the number of cases. HPA immunisation expert Dr Mary Ramsay said: "We've been very worried because the cases have stayed up over the summer holidays. She stressed that it was vital that children had both doses of the MMR vaccine as up to one in ten children will not be fully protected against measles after just one dose.
Dr Ramsey said......."We've had quite a few cases in children of school age and we're worried those cases are going to take themselves into school when term starts soon."
Officials fear this year's figures could end up beating last year's - and those marked a 10-year high.
She said: "Although the numbers are still small, compared to the history of measles, we're always worried about measles because very rarely it can kill. We hadn't had any deaths from measles since the early 1990s but unfortunately we had one death last year and we don't want any more."FACTSMeasles is a highly infectious virus. It starts with a fever and conjunctivitis before a rash develops. The rash often lasts about a week and other complications can include pneumonia and diarrhoea. The triple vaccine commonly known as the MMR jab was introduced in the late 1980s and is used to immunise children against the disease. Up until the jab was introduced, there were 20 deaths a year on average in the UK. But since the early 1990s there has just been one in total
August 2007
Look at other News Headlines Here
Our Main News Section
Look at other News Snippets Here | 
Why Not To Have Kids
