Urgent warning to all parents to check their child’s medical records now
PARENTS have been urged to check their children's medical records now.
This is to make sure they are all up to date on their vital vaccines.
Depending on their age, children could be due their first or second MMR jabs.
This is a combined vaccine that protects against three separate illnesses – measles, mumps and rubella, which is also known as German measles – in a single injection.
The full course of MMR vaccination requires two doses, and is administered at one year of age, and at around three years four months.
But there is no age limit - so even if you didn't get your child jabbed when they were little, you can still do so now.
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The latest data from July to September 2021 found an 88.6 per cent uptake of the first dose of MMR at 24 months, with 85.5 per cent uptake of two doses at five years– a decline on previous quarters.
Professor Helen Bedford at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Helen Donovan at the Royal College of Nursing have urged parents to make sure they have the double dose.
Two jabs, they said, are necessary for optimum protection and 95 per cent vaccine coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks.
They warned: “Even a small decline in MMR vaccine uptake can herald disease outbreaks.
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"We must improve vaccine uptake by ensuring all parents are aware of its importance. There is no upper age limit for MMR vaccine, so this extends to unvaccinated young people and young adults.
“We must build on this confidence to prevent the re-emergence of these potentially devastating infections."
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) have launched a campaign to increase uptake of MMR vaccine in England, to tackle the decline.
It has been blamed on Covid "vaccine fatigue" among the public.
This might be due to the fact that while vaccines have stopped the virus being so severe the infection is still spreading - which may make people think childhood vaccines won't be effective.
On top of this, some parents are thought to have interpreted lockdown instruction to stay at home, as a blanket shutdown of all routine appointments.
However, between 2018-2020, nine children and adults died from measles in England and Wales.
Earlier this year the UK Health Security Agency warned parents to be vigilant after a drop in vaccine uptake.
UKHSA warned: “As international travel resumes, it is more likely that measles will be brought in from countries that have higher levels of the disease.”
Cases are currently low in the UK, with the last serious outbreak a few years ago, but infections globally are rising.
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Helen Bedford, the professor of children’s health at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, told the Telegraph: "Of all the vaccines, MMR is the most sensitive in terms of decline in numbers, because measles is so highly infectious.
"You can quickly get to a position where we would get outbreak problems quite quickly.”
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