Research and analysis

HPR volume 12 issue 11: news (29 March)

Updated 21 December 2018

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Risk of measles transmission in the EU/EEA

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has reported a high risk of measles in Europe, with cases being imported and exported between countries. Measles cases reported from EU/EEA countries more than tripled in 2017 (to 14,600), compared with 2016, according to a recent rapid risk assessment published by the Centre [1,2].

This is largely due to lower MMR vaccine uptake in many European countries. Romania, Italy, Germany, Greece and France are all currently experiencing large measles outbreaks with fatalities.

Although the overall risk to the UK population is low, in England there have been 168 laboratory-confirmed measles cases this year. London, South East, West Midlands and the South West regions have reported the most cases. About half of the cases in England in 2018 have been in people over 15 years of age [3].

The UK achieved WHO measles elimination status last year. However ongoing measles outbreaks on the continent mean that cases may continue to occur in unimmunised individuals and limited onward spread can occur in communities with low MMR coverage, and in age groups with very close mixing [3].

Latest PHE “COVER” data (vaccine coverage achieved by the UK childhood immunisation programme) are published in this issue of HPR. The report, covering the October to December 2017 quarter, indicate that MMR coverage across the UK as a whole was 91.6% for first-dose MMR vaccine, and 88.0% for second-dose vaccine [4].

References

  1. PHE (21 March 2018). Rapid Risk Assessment: Risk of measles transmission in the EU/EEA.
  2. “ECDC Rapid Risk Assessment highlights young adults and healthcare workers as groups that are susceptible to measles”, ECDC news release, 21 March 2018.
  3. “Measles outbreaks in Europe: Easter travel advice”, PHE website news story, 28 March 2018.
  4. PHE (29 March 2018). Quarterly vaccination coverage statistics for children aged up to five years in the UK (COVER programme) : October to December 2017, HPR 12(11): infection report.

Provisional TB data (England) for 2017

PHE has released provisional 2017 data for TB in England which show a 9.3% decline in notifications since 2016 and a 38% decline over the last 6 years. In 2017, a total of 5,137 TB cases were notified, which represents a rate of 9.3 per 100,000 [1]. This is the lowest number of TB cases since 1990 and the lowest TB rate in the last 30 years.

Publication of the provisional data, ahead of World TB Day [2,3], was for the purpose of informing further implementation of the Collaborative TB Strategy for England 2015-2020 [4,5].

Official TB data for England will be published in September 2018.

References

  1. PHE (March 2018). Tuberculosis case notification and incidence in England between 2000 and 2017 (provisional data).
  2. “Tuberculosis cases fall by over a third in last 6 years”, BBC website news story, 24 March 2018.
  3. “Onwards! Leading the global fight against TB”, PHE Public Health Matters blog for World TB Day, 23 March 2018.
  4. Collaborative TB Strategy for England 2015-2020
  5. PHE (March 2018). TB Strategy Update (issue 9).

Infection reports in this issue of HPR

The following reports are published in this issue of HPR. The links below are to the relevant webpage collections or publications.

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