Measles outbreak seems to have been stopped in its tracks (From Evesham Journal)

Measles outbreak seems to have been stopped in its tracks

11:56am Thursday 4th December 2008 in News By Steve Mather

A MEASLES outbreak in Evesham seems to have been stopped in its tracks with no new cases being reported this week.

Health officials warned last week that Worcestershire was ‘on the cusp’ of a measles epidemic but with only one new case reported in the county during the past seven days the prognosis for the future looks brighter.

There have now been 18 cases of measles in the county from the beginning of November and 12 of these have been contracted by people in Evesham.

Despite the number of cases dropping, Richard Harling, director of public health for Worcestershire said that it was still vitally important for people to have the vaccine.

“We have been concerned for some time that the low MMR vaccination take up would make an outbreak a risk and this is what has happened.

“My advice to people is to give your child the vaccination. It is easy to arrange through your GP.”

However, the situation is worse in neighbouring Warwickshire where there have been double the number of cases in Worcestershire with 36. The majority of these cases are in those under the age of ten.

The figures show a sharp rise on this time last year when there were only seven cases reported during the entire month of November.

Dr Huda Mohamed, director for the Health Protection Agency in Warwickshire said: ”The only sure way for a child to avoid measles is to have two doses of the MMR vaccination, preferably by the age of five but at any age up to 18 if people have not had it previously.”