Measles outbreak in South Wales
22 April 2013
The number of measles cases in South Wales continues to grow on a daily basis. As of yesterday (18 April) the number of cases has passed 800 with 43 cases reported to Public Health Wales in just two days.
People who haven't had the MMR vaccine are not only at risk of measles, but mumps and rubella too and the complications that can result from them.
The founders of Sense were parents whose children were born deafblind as a result of congenital rubella syndrome. If a woman catches rubella in early pregnancy it can be passed on to the foetus, causing damage to the eyes, ears, heart, brain and nervous system. Thanks to vaccination, rubella damage is now rare. However, this means that many people do not realise how dangerous rubella can be.
You can watch a video interview with a man who was born with congenital rubella syndrome below:
Today, we are fully supportive of the MMR vaccine and favour a two dose MMR strategy as the best way to protect against rubella. Rubella is avoidable through the MMR vaccine and has resulted in the near elimination of the congenital rubella syndrome. And it's never too late to immunise, so as well as the opportunities to receive MMR in childhood, young people receive other vaccines as teenagers and this is an opportunity to have MMR if they missed out earlier. Any woman thinking about getting pregnant, and not sure if they are protected against rubella should talk to their GP or midwife.
The concerns about measles are immediate, and while it is encouraging to see the public response, current high levels of immunisation uptake and low levels of rubella reported, there is cause for concern. The number of cases of rubella in 2012 (65) was the highest total since 1999, there is a large unvaccinated group of young people, and the a significant proportion of both the measles and rubella cases that we are seeing are occurring in young people aged 10 and above.
So Sense is continuing to engage with the issues. Nick Morris, our policy officer in Wales, recently wrote this blog post to raise awareness of rubella to policy makers and public health officials in Wales. We were recently involved in a Science Media Centre briefing with immunisation specialist s and Joff McGill was able to talk about rubella with the national media . And Sense has completed a project looking at ethnic minority susceptibility to rubella, which can be read here.
People should always seek medical advice about immunisation, but Sense is able to answer questions about rubella and our position on protecting against it, so please contact info@sense.org.uk.
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