Measles is one of the infectious diseases the World Health Organization wants to see eradicated through immunisation. The measles, mumps and rubella MMR vaccine, introduced in 1988, has certainly helped reduce levels of each disease significantly in the UK, with levels of measles in 2016 and rubella in 2015 and 2016 being sufficiently low to be classed as ‘eliminated’.1,2

However, these diseases, and others such as pertussis (whooping cough) and meningitis, persist here with some seeing frequent outbreaks, despite being included in the NHS childhood routine immunisation programme.1,3,4,5,6

In 2018, the level of measles circulating across the UK increased significantly, with 913 laboratory-confirmed cases in the 10 months to October 2018, compared to 259 cases in the whole of 2017. In 2017, there were 10 rubella notifications across the UK, up from the total of five cases between 2014-16. While mumps had averaged around 3,300 confirmed cases a year between 2010-2014 in England and Wales, levels then fell to 575 cases in 2016, but bounced back to 1,840 cases in 2017.1,3,7