{"id":485691,"date":"2026-02-17T12:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485691\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:09:09","slug":"vaccination-push-follows-big-measles-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485691\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccination push follows ‘big measles outbreak’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vaccination push follows ‘big measles outbreak’<\/p>\n

By Lee Peart<\/a> <\/p>\n

17 February 2026<\/p>\n

A national campaign has been launched by the Government to get children vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\"(c)<\/p>\n

(c) Kristine Wook\/Unsplash <\/p>\n

The drive follows a major measles outbreak in north London which has infected at least 60 children.<\/a><\/p>\n

The UK recently lost its World Health Organisation (WHO) measles elimination status<\/a> after over 2,900 cases were confirmed in England in 2024, the highest levels in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time childhood vaccination rates were, and still are, well below the 95% WHO uptake target needed to prevent measles outbreaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UKHSA estimates childhood vaccinations prevent around 5,000 deaths and more than 228,000 hospital admissions in England every year.<\/p>\n

Dr Zubir Ahmed, health innovation and safety minister, said: \u2018Vaccination is one of the greatest public health successes of our time, protecting children from serious and sometimes life-threatening diseases. But with vaccination rates falling and the UK losing its measles elimination status, it’s vital we act now.’<\/p>\n

UKHSA data shows<\/a>\u00a0London currently accounts for 63.5% of measles cases in England with over a quarter (26%) in the West Midlands.<\/p>\n

North Central London ICB’s chief medical officer, Dr Jo Sauvage, said local MMR uptake of 65% was consistent with wider London but well below optimal levels.<\/p>\n

Enfield Council has confirmed over 60 unconfirmed measles case. <\/p>\n

A council spokesperson told HM no schools had closed as a result and there were no closure plans (although it is currently the half-term holiday for children). <\/p>\n

The council said catch up vaccination clinics are running this week for school age children, adding it was continuing a \u2018vigorous comms plan’ to get more children vaccinated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vaccination push follows ‘big measles outbreak’ By Lee Peart 17 February 2026 A national campaign has been launched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137,7097],"class_list":{"0":"post-485691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-prevention"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}