The Isle of Wight is below target for MMR vaccination and a public health councillor has voiced disquiet over families that are ‘anti-vaccination’.
Liberal Democrat Michael Lilley pointed out the Island’s 85.80% inoculation rate at 5 years old for measles, mumps and rubella, marked in red by council officers, at last Thursday’s 19th February adult social care, public health and housing needs committee meeting.
The Ryde Appley and Elmfield representative said the percentage “doesn’t give you herd immunity”, defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as indirect protection from an infectious disease which occurs when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity through previous infection.
Herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a population to be vaccinated – the same as County Hall’s target – according to the WHO.
The councillor’s comments come after 130 confirmed measles cases were reported in England between 1st January and 16th February, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Cllr Lilley said:
“We’re at 85.80% of measles vaccinations which actually doesn’t give you herd immunity. We obviously have families on the Island that are anti-vaccination and how do we tackle that?
“I do know at certain schools – we’ve got a bit of measles out there at the moment.”
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Nicola Dennis, public health consultant at the Isle of Wight Council, responded:
“The (public health nursing) service does promote vaccination but also within the team – I lead on health protection and data and intelligence – we’re working with the school age immunisation team in the NHS to try to understand which schools have got lower uptakes and how we can work with those schools to change things.
“We do recognise some of the rates aren’t where we want them to be and they are going down and this is something we really do want to prioritise, especially as you say with the national situation around the measles outbreak in London and the West Midlands.”
Cllr Lilley said:
“We need to get to the herd immunity rates. It’s an issue we need to tackle because we’ve got outbreaks right across the UK.
“It’s our second health protection board in May.
“We’ve invited NHS England to do a deep dive into screening and immunisations with us. We’re going to talk in detail about what we can do across the Island across all of our immunisation and screening services.
“We absolutely see it as the key priority for health protection on the Island.”
Measles is a highly contagious, serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death, according to the World Health Organisation.
Those of us, of a certain age will remember going to measles parties to make sure you caught it……
Yes,.. me too…
But,..
the reality is that catching measles when very young, is generally far less serious than catching it whan older.
so, when there was no vaccine, going to measles parties, as a clild, was the best option available for not getting it later in life.
However getting measles at any age is not risk-free, so a proven vaccine is a much safer option overall.
I had measles as a child; so I have the immunity, from that, not to get it again.
if I hadn’t had it,. I would definately have a vaccine for it
After the last pandemic many people have lost
trust in vaccines and the WHO
Why though? I dont, hand on heart know the foggiest about the WHO, other than what someone on social media with an agenda has tried to tell me. Can you say you know enough about vaccines to not trust them? Would you rather believe an anonymous Facebook than your local GP?
So many people have no idea who the
WHO or WEF are!, so sad.
Crikey. Im impressed
It’s so funny that authorities didn’t see this coming… you didn’t hear of anti-vaxxers before governments and health authorities mandated untested, unproven “vaccines” for mild and non-threatening fake illnesses. Ha.
What are your professional credentials to have an educated opinion on ‘fake’ illnesses, will? Or have you watched too much YouTube, liked too many Facebook comments and should probably get some fresh air turn off the computer a bit.
Poor Lisa Shaw plus many more persons sadly
passed away taking experimental vaccines.
Do your research, don’t cry afterwards
You are spot on, so many people are gullible and
trust politicians.
Lol
Too many armchair Facebook doctors. Too much ticktock, too much disinformation turning our brains into mush. Can we please switch it all off and go back to the simpler life. If we all deleted social media, back to the 90’s, goodness wouldn’t we be happier, safer, nicer people.
there were no real issues of all these diseases before the upsurge in illegals arriving by dinghy, that have never been vaccinated
Vaccines never stopped the spread.
measles, mumps, and rubella have been endemic in the UK since long before immigrants were invented
You need to wake up to what is happening.
I presume you mean “wake up & believe all the mis-information spread around on social media” ?