Nearly a million children and teenagers are to be offered vaccination in England to protect them from the growing threat of measles, it was announced today.
Government officials launched the emergency programme as the country faced record numbers of cases – and in Wales hundreds have been infected.
Last year nearly 2,000 people were infected in England and by the end of March some 587 cases had been reported.
In South Wales some 886 people have been infected so far.
Officials say a third of a million children aged between ten and 16 have never been vaccinated.
Another 600,000 of all ages have never received booster doses of the MMR vaccine.
More than 100 children this year have needed hospital treatment.
Dr Paul Cosford, of Public Health England, said: "Although nationally the numbers needing catch-up vaccination is quite large, there are relatively few in each local area.
"We are confident that local teams have the resources to identify and vaccinate those children most at risk, and that the NHS has sufficient vaccine to cover the approaches described in the action plan."
Head of immunisation Dr Mary Ramsay said: "The only way to prevent measles outbreaks, such as the one we are seeing in South Wales, is to ensure good uptake of the MMR vaccine across all age groups. Measles is not a mild illness – it is very unpleasant and can lead to serious complications as we have seen with more than 100 children in England being hospitalised so far this year."
The campaign won backing from GP leaders today.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA’s GP committee, said: "For it to be successful Public Health England, local authorities, NHS England and GPs need to work together. This is the first big test for integrated working between these organisations since the NHS was restructured and it is important that we make it a success.
"We need to ensure that this is carefully planned so that as many individuals as possible are vaccinated and further measles outbreaks are prevented."
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