Measles and vaccinations: Opt-out choice is far too risky

Measles is one of those nasty diseases we had, through near-universal vaccination programmes, almost eradicated but it is at an eight-year high across Europe. With four months in hand, 2018 has already recorded more cases of the highly-infectious disease than any year since 2010.

It would be tempting but dangerously foolish to dismiss this as a rite-of-passage illness. That may be the case in the vast majority of occurrences but anyone familiar with the devastating impact one strain of measles — rubella — can have on an unborn child could not share that view. Indeed, they would insist that complacency is simply not an option.