Health bosses are urging anyone who has missed out on the MMR vaccine to get it now

KentOnline / KMTV

You are being encouraged to get your child vaccinated against measles if they missed the jab as a baby.  It follows outbreaks of the highly infectious virus in the Midlands and London.  Vaccination rates in Kent and Medway are currently below the recommended 95% level.  Dr Ellen Schwartz, deputy director of public health, says everyone needs to make sure they have the MMR jab.

Transcript

00:00 So first of all, measles is probably one of the most infectious viruses out there.

00:06 And the typical symptoms are high fever and a kind of blotchy reddish brown rash.

00:15 And as I kind of hinted at, that of course looks different whether you have it on white skin or

00:20 slightly more browner skin. So the different presentations.

00:24 And there is a lot of material out there to kind of look at what it could look like.

00:30 And then of course you have different symptoms according to the age of the person.

00:35 A younger child sometimes is only floppy and irresponsive, may or may not have a rash.

00:41 So have the kind of threshold of suspicion relatively low.

00:46 But so the worry is primarily around children.

00:51 Because as a result of the pandemic, most importantly, the immunization levels have dropped.

00:58 And so really the plea to all of us, adults, parents, carers,

01:05 to share kind of the basic message is, are you fully protected?

01:12 Is your child fully protected? And the full protection.

01:15 So this is really the good news is that the MMR vaccine protects 99%

01:23 from measles, provided you have the two doses.

01:28 And this protection lasts a lifetime.

01:31 So it's really kind of making sure everyone knows their status.

01:35 Do I have, does my child have the two doses?

01:40 And if not, make sure they're up to date.

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