Reply #16: 2006: Decline in MMR uptake blamed for measles death

[muriel_volestrangler]

A FALL in the number of parents allowing their children to have the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been blamed for a resurgence of measles that has claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy.

More people have been infected in the first three months of this year than the whole of 2005, and at least 30 children have caught measles in a single outbreak in South Yorkshire.

The teenager is Britain’s first fatality in 14 years.

Immunisation rates here, eight years after the first scare over the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, are among the lowest in Western Europe. Fears that the triple jab could lead to autism caused take-up to fall from over 90 per cent in 1998 to less than 80 per cent two years ago. Currently, 81 per cent of children have the combined vaccine before they are two; many European countries achieve the 95 per cent coverage recommended by the World Health Organisation to prevent outbreaks.

The 13-year-old who died last month lived in a travellers’ community. It is thought that he had a weakened immune system; he was being treated for a lung condition. The boy died of an infection of the central nervous system caused by a reaction to the measles virus. The Health Protection Agency described his death as shocking.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article701459.ece