Measles Is Back - Are You or Your Children at Risk? - video Dailymotion

National World - LocalTV

Doctors are urging families to check MMR records after a child died from complications linked to measles. Take-up of the vaccine has fallen well below national targets in many parts of the UK.

Transcript

00:00Well, measles is a nasty infection. It's a nasty disease. It makes children feel very unwell.

00:06So they get a very high fever, a rash, things like conjunctivitis, but the complications

00:14include pneumonia, and that's often the cause of death for children. But other things like

00:22encephalitis, that's inflammation of the brain. The thing about measles is it's incredibly

00:27infectious. It's up there as one of the most infectious human diseases. And if we're going

00:33to keep the disease away, what is needed is a very, very high uptake of a measles-containing

00:39vaccine, 95% of two doses, and it needs to be sustained. And that's wherein lies the difficulty.

00:49When you have very high vaccine uptake, the disease tends to go away, and then people think,

00:54oh, disease gone away, don't need to vaccinate, and it's difficult to keep people committed.

01:00Why do you think that vaccine uptake in areas, for instance, Liverpool, is lower than it should

01:06be? Do you consider that there are any barriers stopping people, and indeed parents, from getting

01:11their children vaccinated?

01:13Well, the reasons why children aren't vaccinated are very complicated. There isn't just one

01:19solution or one reason. But we know multiple things can play into this, particularly low

01:27vaccine uptake tends to go with more disadvantage and poverty. So the biggest reason why young

01:35children aren't vaccinated is due to issues around access. And access can take many forms.

01:41It might be that parents have questions and concerns about the vaccine, and quite rightly,

01:47but it's not always obvious where they can get answers to those questions. But then there

01:52are more practical barriers that can prevent children being vaccinated. Just things like making

01:58an appointment, getting to the appointment, those sorts of things can be very important. And

02:04if you put all that in the context of disadvantage, where we know many families are struggling with

02:12finance at the moment, so literally, how do I feed my children? It may be that paying the

02:20bus fare to take your child to be vaccinated is, with the best will in the world, just a step

02:24too far. So there are multiple reasons. And we do tend to see poorer uptake in inner city areas.

02:33Where do you think would be the best place for people to pose their questions? Where should

02:37they go to ask and find out more about vaccines?

02:41Well, definitely speak to a health professional. So health visitor, practice nurse, GP, they are

02:46the people to ask the question. There's also some very good online resources at the NHS website,

02:53for example. It is unfortunate, we know from research and from anecdote, really, that since

03:01the pandemic, there has been an increase in parents having questions about vaccination.

03:06And I think this is good. This is a good thing. One should ask questions. But it isn't always

03:12easy to get answers to those questions. But health professionals are the first port of call for this

03:18sort of information. Definitely. I think it's very important that local communities look at what

03:24the local reasons are for why children aren't being vaccinated, because this is going to vary from place

03:29to place. What are the key things that you would like to see people take away?

03:34The key thing is that measles is a nasty disease. It's called a childhood disease, but that doesn't

03:39mean it's not serious. But it's also serious for adults. And there are many young adults who haven't

03:45been vaccinated. And actually, if you get measles in adulthood, you're far more likely to end up in

03:52hospital. There is no upper age limit for vaccination. So at any age, people can be caught up if they've

04:00missed out. And if they don't know whether they've had the vaccine, there's no harm to be had in having

04:05additional doses. But we have a very safe, very effective, very cheap vaccine. We shouldn't be seeing

04:13outbreaks. We certainly should not be seeing children dying from measles. So it is really important to put this

04:20top of top of the list of priorities over the summer when people are traveling.

04:26That's a bit, but thank you very much for your time.

Measles Is Back - Are You or Your Children at Risk?

Category

Transcript

Recommended