Apparently Measles is now endemic in the UK. Well now there’s a surprise — I thought it always had been! But according to an item the other day on ProMED Mail (the mailing list of the International Society for Infectious Diseases) which is interested mostly in emerging diseases, Measles had become a rarity but is once again endemic. To quote from the item …
Measles once again endemic in the United Kingdom
A total of 14 years after the local transmission of measles was halted in the United Kingdom (UK),the disease has once again become endemic, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the public health body of England and Wales. In an update on measles cases in its weekly bulletin last week, the agency stated that, as a result of almost a decade of low mumps-measles-rubella(MMR) vaccination coverage across the UK, ‘the number of children susceptible to measles is now sufficient to support the continuous spread of measles’.
In an earlier update, the HPA reported that all recent indigenously-acquired cases with a genotype in England and Wales had been found to have the same D4 sequence …
In May [2008], a 17-year-old with underlying congenital immunodeficiency died of acute measles infection, the first such fatality in the UK since 2006 … The total number of confirmed measles cases in England and Wales so far this year [2008] is 461. In Scotland, there have been 68 cases of measles reported in 2008, of which 51 have been laboratory-confirmed. All of the cases in Scotland were either not immunised or of unknown immunisation status. Only 2 of the cases were imported from abroad …
The HPA has recommended that health services exploit ‘all possible opportunities’ to offer MMR vaccine to children who have not received 2 doses … Europe is facing a measles epidemic, with large ongoing outbreaks for instance in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
Why am I not surprised? Moreover I don’t understand this fuss; we’ve always had Measles. Yes, I know it can be nasty, but so can ‘flu. Why do we have this fetish that we must always rid ourselves so permanently of all diseases. Are we not beginning to get evidence that the population as a whole is healthier for being exposed to all these things?
Exactly what I always say about measles! Most of our generation had it and survived it with no ill effects. I remember us having measles parties just to get it over with. I’ve had measles twice and German measles once without any nasty consequences. Life is dangerous – you cannot eliminate all risks.