The UK is letting measles return - and children will pay a deadly price |
By Joanna Rea
Losing measles-free status is a wake-up call.
The UK is letting vaccine-preventable diseases return.
The UK’s loss of its measles elimination status this week is more than an issue of public health. It is a symptom of a deeper complacency - one that is allowing diseases that were once pushed to the brink of extinction to creep back into children’s lives, with devastating results. The surge of measles cases in 2024 did not come from nowhere. It followed a steady, five-year decline in childhood vaccination rates and MMR uptake falling well below the herd immunity threshold. What’s happening now is not a blip. It is a deadly trend, and children will pay the highest price.
Measles is not the only disease staging a comeback. Whooping cough, another potentially deadly illness that many people assumed belonged to history, has surged dramatically.
Alarmingly, every routine childhood vaccine in the UK is now falling below the World Health Organization’s recommended 95 per cent coverage target. Despite this, the UK Government has removed any target for vaccine uptake........