Health chiefs have declared a national incident over a surge in measles cases amid fears that a West Midlands outbreak could spread.
The UK is on a trajectory for “everything getting much worse” when it comes to the virus spreading, the head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned.
Professor Dame Jenny Harries said that without urgent action, measles is likely to spread rapidly and that immediate action was needed to boost uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in areas where numbers of children having the jab were low.
Symptoms of the highly infectious virus include a bad rash, high fever, ear infections, red, watery eyes and aches and pains.
But official figures show uptake of the vaccine is at its lowest point in more than a decade.
In 2022-23, only 84.5 per cent of youngsters in England had received both doses of the jab by the age of five – the lowest level since 2010-11.
