The Department of Health is considering a program to vaccinate teenagers and young people with the measles vaccine after the HSE warned that a measles outbreak was likely in Ireland.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told Cabinet on Tuesday that a significant increase in measles cases reported in Europe this winter and a decline in MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination rates meant the disease could become widely transmitted. He plans to explain that concerns are growing. This year it’s Ireland.
In some counties, one-fifth of the population has no protection against measles due to low vaccination rates.
Vaccination coverage in Ireland is below the crisis level of 95%, with almost one in five 18- and 19-year-olds unvaccinated.
The government hopes its catch-up program for certificate graduates and university students will bring in more students whose parents had their MMR injections stopped due to a false link with autism. Are expected.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, but it is preventable with two doses of the vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic has massively disrupted routine immunization efforts around the world, slowing recovery.
A report released last November by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there would be a “staggering” annual increase in measles cases and deaths worldwide in 2022.
Ireland recorded just four cases last year, which occurred within a single family and were imported from outside the EU. This year, as of January 27, no cases of infection have been reported.
Last month, the UK declared a national incident over the measles outbreak, signaling an increased public health risk. In some areas and groups in London, first MMR vaccination coverage at age 2 was as low as 69.5%.
In July last year, UK health authorities warned of a steady rise in measles cases and the risk of a resurgence of the virus, with low vaccination rates particularly in London potentially resulting in between 40,000 and 160,000 cases. Stated.