The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p472
5 October 2002

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Public Health Laboratory Service: report (more)

MMR uptake shows small recovery

Uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine rose half a percentage point over the summer, according to the latest figures from the Public Health Laboratory Service.

Data show that 84.3 per cent of two-year olds in the United Kingdom were immunised with MMR between April and June compared with 83.8 per cent in the previous quarter. The rise had been predicted earlier this year by PHLS sentinel surveillance data of children aged 16 months.

The latest uptake statistics also show that MMR uptake in London, which has been the lowest in England, has shown an even greater recovery — it rose by 1.6 percentage points between April and June, to 75.1 per cent. Dr Natasha Crowcroft, of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, said government funding targeted at those London health authorities with the lowest uptake had been instrumental in improving vaccination rates. She said: "This funding has allowed these authorities to work on improving their uptake of the vaccine and also to look at their data collection systems, and these latest data show the positive impact this has had."

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed measles cases in the UK, which had increased from 32 in the last quarter of 2001 to 126 between January and March of this year, have now decreased. Fifty-two cases were confirmed between April and June.