Parents in north London have been told their children could be excluded from school if they are not fully vaccinated against measles amid an outbreak of the highly-contagious disease.<\/p>\n
Unvaccinated pupils identified as close contacts of people with measles could be excluded for 21 days in accordance with national guidelines, Enfield Council said in a letter to all parents in the borough in late January.<\/p>\n
At least 34 children have contracted measles in Enfield so far this year, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said, and a number sent to hospital.<\/p>\n
A local health chief meanwhile told the BBC: \u00ab\u00a0We are worried because actually, this is a significantly increased number than what we’re used to.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u200bAsking unvaccinated, close contacts of measles cases to stay off school is fairly standard practice when there are local outbreaks.<\/p>\n
A local GP surgery said infections had been confirmed in \u00ab\u00a0at least\u00a0\u00bb seven schools in Enfield and neighbouring Haringey.<\/p>\n
The number of cases seen in the area is not out of the ordinary for such outbreaks, which have been occurring reasonably frequently since late 2023.<\/p>\n
Dr Jo Sauvage, the chief medical officer of North Central London Integrated Care Board told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that outbreaks did \u00ab\u00a0happen in pockets across the country\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
But she said: \u00ab\u00a0Certainly in our area we’ve not seen an increase in number of this degree before.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
She said some 60 suspected cases had been confirmed – with the majority in schools and nurseries and some children requiring hospital treatment, \u00ab\u00a0particularly those who have not been immunised\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’ve been working closely to contain the infection, the spread, but also increase public knowledge and awareness,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
The UK recently lost its World Health Organization measles elimination status after over 2,900 cases of measles were confirmed in England in 2024, the highest level for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
There were nearly 1,000 cases in 2025.<\/p>\n
The outbreak in Enfield comes as the government launches a wider campaign to improve childhood vaccination uptake for measles and other jabs for under fives.<\/p>\n
Another local GP, Dr Ellie Cannon, said the outbreak was probably the first time she had seen measles at her north London surgery in her 20-year career.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’ve definitely got an issue with children being vaccinated and it certainly needs to improve as we’ve seen with this outbreak,\u00a0\u00bb she told BBC Breakfast.<\/p>\n
The letter to parents urged families to check their child’s vaccination status – as well as their own – to limit spread of the disease, which can cause serious and potentially life-threatening health complications.<\/p>\n
Just 64.3% of five-year-olds in Enfield received both doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubela) vaccine in 2024\/25 – one of the lowest rates in the country and far below the 95% threshold needed to prevent outbreaks.<\/p>\n
National uptake was 84.4% that year, down from a high of 88.8% a decade ago.<\/p>\n
There are a number of catch-up clinics in the area, where children who have missed their vaccination at school can be immunised for free.<\/p>\n
Both Dr Sauvage and Dr Cannon said there were several reasons vaccine uptake had dropped – citing factors such as struggling to arrange appointments, a lack of awareness about the vaccination programme, and concerns around the vaccine itself.<\/p>\n
Dr Sauvage said the most important approach was to speak directly to families and \u00ab\u00a0dispel any concerns they have about side effects or problems with the vaccine, which is safe\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We talk a lot about vaccine refusers and conspiracy theorists,\u00a0\u00bb said Dr Cannon, but most people are probably \u00ab\u00a0just what we call vaccine hesitant\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Measles is a highly contagious disease which is spread by coughs and sneezes or by touching things that someone with measles has coughed or sneezed on.<\/p>\n
Common symptoms include:<\/p>\n
Small white spots may appear inside the mouth.<\/p>\n
A blotchy red or brown rash usually appears after a few days, typically behind the ears and on the face, before spreading.<\/p>\n
The rash may be harder to detect on brown and black skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parents in north London have been told their children could be excluded from school if they are not fully vaccinated against measles amid an outbreak of the highly-contagious disease. Unvaccinated pupils identified as close contacts of people with measles could be excluded for 21 days in accordance with national guidelines, Enfield Council said in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}