Thanks anti-vac whacks!

(I'm glad my kids are immunized.)

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Date: Thu 3 Jul 2008
Source: Eurosurveillance, Volume 13, Issue 27, 2008, News [edited]
<http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=18919>

Measles once again endemic in the United Kingdom
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A total of 14 years after the local transmission
of measles was halted in the United Kingdom (UK),
the disease has once again become endemic,
according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA),
the public health body of England and Wales. In
an update on measles cases in its weekly bulletin
last week, the agency stated that, as a result of
almost a decade of low mumps-measles-rubella
(MMR) vaccination coverage across the UK, 'the
number of children susceptible to measles is now
sufficient to support the continuous spread of measles' [1].

In an earlier update, the HPA reported that all recent
indigenously-acquired cases with a genotype in England and Wales had
been found to have the same D4 sequence (MVs/Enfield.GBR/14.07), a
genotype 1st identified in April 2007 and which is now endemic in the
UK [2].

In May [2008], a 17-year-old with underlying congenital
immunodeficiency died of acute measles infection, the first such
fatality in the UK since 2006. The strain was also
MVs/Enfield.GBR/14.07, genotype D4 [more accurately clade D4; see
below].

The total number of confirmed measles cases in England and Wales so
far this year [2008] is 461. In Scotland, there have been 68 cases of
measles reported in 2008, of which 51 have been laboratory-confirmed
[3]. All of the cases in Scotland were either not immunised or of
unknown immunisation status. Only 2 of the cases were imported from
abroad, both from Pakistan.

The HPA has recommended that health services
exploit 'all possible opportunities' to offer MMR
vaccine to children who have not received 2
doses. The agency also stressed the necessity for
all healthcare workers in contact with vulnerable
patients to have documented immunity to measles.

Europe is facing a measles epidemic, with large
ongoing outbreaks for instance in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

[Byline: Eurosurveillance Editorial Team,
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden]

References
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(1)  Health Protection Agency. Confirmed measles
cases in England and Wales  an update to end of
May 2008. Health Protection Report (serial
online). 20 June 2008. 2;25. Available from:
<http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/news/default.htm#meas0805>

(2)  Health Protection Agency. Confirmed cases of
measles in England and Wales  an update. Health
Protection Report (serial online). 23 May 2008. 2;(21). Available
from:
<http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/archives/2008/news2108.htm#measls>

(3)  Vaccine uptake, measles, mumps, rubella,
whooping cough. HPS Weekly Report. Health
Protection Scotland. 25 June 2008. 42;2008/26. Available from:
<http://www.documents.hps.scot.nhs.uk/ewr/ pdf2008/0826.pdf>.