{"id":14832,"date":"2025-07-22T07:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14832\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T07:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:13:09","slug":"we-have-forgotten-how-serious-measles-can-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14832\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We have forgotten how serious measles can be’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health officials are urging parents in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to check their children are fully vaccinated against measles.<\/p>\n

NHS figures reveal uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab has fallen across the two regions.<\/p>\n

Grimsby GP Dr Nathalie Dukes said: “The evidence is clear that the increase in the number of people who are getting infected is coinciding with the rates of vaccination dropping.”<\/p>\n

Dr Dukes said she believed one of the reasons behind the fall in vaccination numbers is that people have “forgotten how serious conditions like measles can be”.<\/p>\n

She said: “We have come to the luxurious position where up until recently these conditions were not really around anymore.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t see many cases so it was out of our remit of relevance to a degree.<\/p>\n

“Information overload is another factor. I think people have got a bit vaccine fatigue since Covid in terms of being told what to do and in terms of concerns, so people have maybe taken that to childhood vaccinations as well.”<\/p>\n

Measles is a highly contagious disease spread when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes and it can lead to serious and potentially life-threatening complications in some people, including infections of the lungs and brain.<\/p>\n

The target set by the World Health Organisation to prevent the spread of measles through herd immunity is a 95% overall vaccination rate.<\/p>\n

Latest NHS figures show 83% of children received their second dose of the MMR vaccine by the age of five in North Lincolnshire and Hull in 2023\/24 – down from 91% in 2013\/14.<\/p>\n

Uptake is also 83% in Lincolnshire – 4% lower than 10 years ago, while rates have also dropped by 4% to 91% in North East Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n

In 2024, there were more than 2,900 confirmed measles cases in England – the highest number of cases recorded annually since 2012.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of this year, there have been 529 confirmed cases reported in England, according to figures by the UK Health Security Agency.<\/p>\n

In July, a child died at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after contracting the disease.<\/p>\n

Birmingham experienced an outbreak<\/a>, with government figures showing 26 confirmed cases between January and June, while Bristol had recorded the most cases to date outside London<\/a> with 11% of the national total.<\/p>\n

\"Lily<\/p>\n

Hull mum Lily Kemp, whose two young boys have both had the MMR vaccine, says it is important parents protect their children, and others [BBC]<\/p>\n

Speaking at a children’s play centre in Hull, mum-of-two Lily Kemp said it was important to make sure children were fully vaccinated against infections, such as measles.<\/p>\n

She said: “I think social media doesn’t help because people share their experiences and some might comment on the short-term effects rather than the long-term benefits of what they’re protecting against if they get vaccinated.”<\/p>\n

A joint statement from the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Hull City Council said: “While the majority of children are protected, there remain pockets of low uptake that increase the risk of measles outbreaks.<\/p>\n

“Vaccination remains the best protection against measles, mumps and rubella.<\/p>\n

“We urge all parents and carers to check their child’s Red Book or contact their GP if they are unsure whether their child is up to date.”<\/p>\n

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the latest episode of Look North<\/a> or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download the BBC News app from the App Store<\/a> for iPhone and iPad or Google Play<\/a> for Android devices<\/p>\n

Related internet storiesRelated internet links\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials are urging parents in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to check their children are fully vaccinated against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,13358,84,13356,5041,13354,13357,13359,13355],"class_list":["post-14832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-confirmed-cases","tag-health","tag-lincolnshire","tag-measles","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-north-east-lincolnshire","tag-vaccinations","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}