High alert after Hackney named measles hotspot

The MMR vaccine: MP Diane Abbott has urged parents to ensure their children have had it. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

Hackney is on high alert after the borough was hit harder by measles than any other London area.

28 cases have been diagnosed so far this year up to March – up from 10 cases during the same period last year.

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Shadow Public Health Secretary tweeted: “Measles Alert: Hackney has highest levels of measles in London. If your child didn’t get their MMR get it done ASAP.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson said there was no need for residents to be “overly concerned”, but added: “we need to ensure that everybody has been vaccinated. If anyone, especially parents or teenage children, has questions about measles or MMR, or needs to know whether they or their children, are fully protected, they should contact their GP Surgery for advice.”

A catch-up campaign was launched last month to immunize all unvaccinated 10 to 16-year-olds across the UK. The drive is directed at a generation of children who missed their innoculations owing to a false scare that linked the MMR jab to autism.

The World Health Organisation recommends immunization levels of 95 per cent to achieve ‘herd immunity’. But figures released by Public Health England last month showed that uptake in Hackney stood at roughly 70% for five-year-olds in
2011-12.

Dr Sohail Bhatti, interim Director of Public Health for Hackney and City, said: “The cases of measles in Hackney have been mostly isolated in one area of the borough and have affected large families with a number of susceptible children, who have contracted the virus from their siblings.

“Hackney is working with nurseries, schools and parents along with GPs, Homerton University Hospital and community leaders to help spread the message about the importance of immunisation as well as promoting clinic timetables and raising awareness of the symptoms associated with the measles.”