This site is intended for UK healthcare professionals
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
News

PHE advises on MMR vaccination for travel to Europe

Public Health England (PHE) is advising that people travelling to Europe should have up-to-date MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination, due to ongoing measles outbreaks across the continent.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has reported a high risk of measles in Europe, with cases being imported and exported between countries. There was a 300 per cent increase in the number of cases of measles in Europe in 2017, largely due to low MMR vaccine uptake in many European countries. Romania, Italy, Germany, Greece and France are all currently experiencing large measles outbreaks.

Although the overall risk to the UK population is low, in England there have been 168 laboratory confirmed measles cases this year. London, South East, West Midlands and the South West regions have reported the most cases. About half of the cases in England in 2018 have been in people over 15 years of age. PHE says local health protection teams are working closely with the NHS and local authorities to raise awareness of the outbreaks in the UK and other parts of Europe.

“The measles outbreaks we are currently seeing in England are linked to ongoing large outbreaks in Europe,” said Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at PHE. “The UK achieved WHO measles elimination status last year, so the overall risk of measles to the UK population is low. However due to ongoing measles outbreaks in Europe, we will continue to see cases in unimmunised individuals and limited onward spread can occur in communities with low MMR coverage and in age groups with very close mixing.”


References


YOU MAY ALSO LIKE