Measles cases decline in the West Midlands as MMR catch-up programme continues
News from our partners Public Health England
Cases of measles in the West Midlands region fell during June 2013, with only three confirmed cases. This is down from 14 confirmed cases for May and follows the nationwide rollout of the national MMR catch-up programme. Across England as a whole, there were 113 cases in June, compared to 193 for May.
The catch-up programme, run by Public Health England, NHS England, the Department of Health, and local authorities, aims to prevent measles outbreaks by giving MMR to as many unvaccinated and partially vaccinated 10-16 year olds as possible.
Progress in the campaign has been monitored using data on the MMR status of children aged between 10 and 16 years old, gathered from around 2,000 general practices in July 2013. When compared with similar aged children in 2012, the numbers point to almost 60,000 previously unvaccinated children having now had one dose in England. Additionally, a slightly higher number have now completed the two dose course.
Dr Musarrat Afza, PHE West Midlands consultant in communicable disease control, said:
“While it’s too early to say the MMR catch-up campaign is responsible for the declining number of measles cases, we can say definitively that children who have not had the MMR vaccine remain at high risk of catching the disease.
“We are making good progress towards the 95 per cent target, but there still remains a number of 10-16 year olds within the West Midlands region, together with some younger children and adults, who are under-vaccinated.
“We urge parents of children that haven’t had the MMR vaccine to contact their GP and get them vaccinated.”
Screening and Immunisation Teams in each of the 25 NHS Area Teams across England are reinforcing work done so far by general practices, to sustain the MMR catch-up and to plan for additional efforts to identify pockets of remaining unvaccinated children in the target age-range.
The next phase of the catch-up programme involves each Area Team planning activity appropriate to their area. These plans will be based on local intelligence around MMR coverage in their communities, with interventions based on an assessment of their likely effectiveness in their locality.
Longer term plans for the elimination of the sustained transmission of measles will involve improving and sustaining the high coverage of MMR for younger children and also implementing routine catch-up opportunities for older children; for example when changing schools or receiving other teenage booster vaccinations. This aims to ensure a long-lasting legacy for future children and ensure that the catch-up programme is not just a short-term fix.
Further information
Public Health England’s mission is to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities through working with national and local government, the NHS, industry and the voluntary and community sector. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. To find out more visit: www.gov.uk/phe follow us on Twitter @PHE_uk
PHE has commissioned an audit which aims to confirm both the baseline level of coverage and the current level given the catch up programme so far. This audit will take information from the Child Health Information Systems in London and elsewhere, and review this against GP records for those identified as unvaccinated to confirm their vaccination status.
More information on the MMR catch-up programme will be available on the PHE website from Friday 9 August: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england/series/MMR-catch-up-programme-2013.
The catch-up programme sets out a national framework within which local teams – led by NHS England Area Teams, working alongside Directors of Public Health in Local Government, and supported by PHE Centres – are producing tailored plans to identify and give MMR to unvaccinated and partially vaccinated 10-16 year olds through GPs and/or school programmes. Local intelligence may reveal the need to expand the focus of the catch-up activity beyond the 10-16 year old age groups and where this is recognised, further local action will be taken.
For more information on measles and MMR, visit:
http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Measles/measles/MMR or http:/www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Measles/Pages/Introduction.aspx.
