Republic one of 7 countries at risk of measles epidemic

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.

And there are thousands of children in Ireland at risk of contracting the disease, which can have devastating consequences, according to the state’s public health watchdog.

The WHO names Ireland as one of seven countries at risk of an epidemic as a result of the high susceptibility in children and in some cases, adults, to the disease.

It wants the potentially fatal disease eradicated in Europe by 2010 and is calling for a higher vaccination rate in Ireland.

Specialist in public health medicine at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dr Suzanne Cotter, said thousands of children in Ireland were at risk of measles.

While Ireland’s measles immunisation coverage has increased from a low of 73% in 2000 and 2001 to 88%, it is still not high enough. Ireland will have to strengthen its routine measles programme to achieve 95% coverage.

“It still means that 12% of children who are 24 months of age do not have the vaccination. That’s about 2,000 children,” said Dr Cotter.

There is also a large cohort of children aged between eight and 10 who are not protected against the disease.

Measles immunisation was introduced in Ireland in 1985 but in 2000 many parents were not taking up the offer of vaccination.

The fall-off was believed to be largely due to the medical claim in 1999 linking MMR to autism. A series of reports later found there was no evidence to back up the claim.

In 2000, there was an outbreak of measles in Ireland — 1,603 people contracted the disease and three children died.

Latest statistics show 14 measles cases were reported during the first 10 weeks of this year, but only one was laboratory confirmed.

Two doses of MMR vaccine are recommended for all children and young adults. It has been recommended that a comprehensive immunisation programme is introduced in Irish schools.

The HSE plans to roll out the schools’ programme towards the end of the year or early next year.

Disease facts

* 330 cases of measles reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre in 2004, 93 in 2005 and 83 in 2006.

* Of cases reported in 2006, 24 were confirmed, 55 were classified as “possible” while four were not specified. 71 were children under four years of age.

* Immunisation coverage fell from 79% in 2000 to 73% in 2001 and 2002, mainly because of a scare linking MMR with autism, later shown to be groundless.