CHILDREN must be fully vaccinated against measles before visiting Europe this summer, Ireland’s health protection watchdog has urged.

A child was tonight fighting for its life after contracting pneumonia from an outbreak of measles, health chiefs confirmed.

THE number of reported mumps cases has spiralled to 848 since January, compared with just 62 for the same period last year.

Teenagers and young adults were being warned about the dangers of catching the potentially dangerous mumps virus after it was revealed that more than 1,000 people contracted the disease this year.

THERE has been a five-fold increase in the number of mumps cases reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre so far this year, new figures show.

SEVEN out of 10 cases of mumps reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in the past five years were not immunised or were insufficiently protected against the disease, figures have shown.

IRELAND has one of the worst records in Europe at fighting measles and is at risk of an epidemic, the World Health Organisation has warned.

THE number of measles cases doubled last year, raising fears of an epidemic.