Measles: Birmingham outbreak declared a national incident and likely to spread

Outbreaks of measles will spread to other towns and cities in the UK without urgent action to increase measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination uptake, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned.On 19 January the agency declared the current outbreak in Birmingham1 a national incident, allowing it to put more resources into tackling the problem.2As of 18 January there have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases in the west Midlands since 1 October 2023. Around 80% of those cases have been in Birmingham, with 10% in Coventry, UKHSA said. Most are in children under 10 years old.On a visit to Birmingham, Jenny Harries, chief executive of UKHSA, said, “Colleagues across the west Midlands have worked tirelessly to try to control the outbreak, but with vaccine uptake in some communities so low there is now a very real risk of seeing the virus spread to other towns and…
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