Warning over Wales measles epidemic

Health Minister James Reilly has warned that Ireland is at a greater risk of measles because of an epidemic in Wales.

There are more than 800 confirmed cases of measles in south Wales in an outbreak that is believed to have claimed the life of one man.

Dr Reilly said parents who were deferring a decision to vaccinate their children were taking a “hell of a risk”, given the situation in Wales.

“There is no cause for panic but I think it should give you cause for serious thought in terms of having your child vaccinated,” he said.

Dr Reilly said the MMR vaccination was perfectly safe and there was no evidence to associate it with autism.

“A lot of damage was done by reports on research that was found subsequently not to be valid,” he said.

He said he was absolutely certain that, in the current situation, it was far, far safer to have children vaccinated. “The hard fact is that children die from measles and they have died in this country,” said Dr Reilly as he marked European Immunisation Week by launching a new public awareness campaign.

There were 104 measles infections reported to the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre last year, with 60 recorded in West Cork.

“When an outbreak comes, it comes very quickly, and I remember the outbreak in Dublin in early 2000 where we lost three children and 15 were admitted to intensive care,” said Dr Reilly.

Brenda Corcoran of the HSE National Immunisation Office said 458 cases of whooping cough were registered in 2012. The disease claimed the lives of two babies.

She said the infants were too young to vaccinate and contracted whooping cough from an older sibling or relatives.

“Getting these diseases presents a much greater risk than the minor side-effects from immunisation,” she said.

Dr Corcoran said the measles immunisation rate was 69% in 2000, primarily because of negative publicity over the MMR jab, since disproven and found to be factually incorrect.

* www.immunisation.ie