I've been watching the story of the current measles outbreak in the UK (centring on Wales but in fact there are outbreaks nationwide at present).
The issue goes back to the loss of herd immunity following the Andrew Wakefield/Autism scandal in 1998 and onwards.
There is a good basic timeline on the MMR scare on the Guardian website : www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/timeline-how-the-andrew-wakefield-mmr-vaccine-scare-story-spread-8570591.html
To secure herd immunity you need around 80% to 90% immunisation in the population and in the UK some rates have fallen well below this - for example in Brent in London take up for children on MMR is at 32% (stat from 2011).
The great news is that following the recent scare, the government is now looking at emergency 'catch up' sessions in schools - more at BBC website : www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-22329178
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment