§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of children aged 24 months in(a) the United Kingdom and (b) Greater London have had the MMR vaccine; and what level of take-up is recommended to avoid outbreaks of (i) mumps, (ii) measles and (iii) rubella. [111285]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 22 February 2000]: Quarterly coverage data from the Public Health Laboratory Service's COVER programme shows uptake of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at age 24 months at September 1999 as 88 per cent. for the United Kingdom. Uptake in the London region was 80 per cent.
The level of uptake of the vaccine recommended to avoid outbreaks of mumps, measles and rubella is 95 per cent. This level of uptake is sufficient to prevent accumulation of pools of susceptible individuals that provide the opportunity for transmission of these diseases.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the likelihood of a localised measles outbreak in communities with a low MMR vaccine uptake; and what notification he has received of such outbreaks in the last two years. [111286]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 22 February 2000]: Large measles outbreaks can occur only when the proportion of children susceptible to measles exceeds target levels. These target levels vary by age and have been defined in the World Health Organisation strategy for measles elimination in Europe. The proportion of children susceptible to measles in the United Kingdom can be estimated from vaccine coverage data and from seroprevalence studies which estimate the number of people without protective levels of antibodies to measles.
The Public Health Laboratory Service routinely uses both sources of data to help to predict the likely emergence of measles outbreaks. If the current levels of vaccine coverage are maintained, large measles outbreaks in schools are not likely to occur until after 2001. Smaller outbreaks among communities with lower than average coverage may occur sooner. The Department of Health is aware of two such outbreaks in communities with low immunisation coverage. These began at the end of 1997 and at the end of 1999 and are described in the Communicable Disease Report of 28 January 2000, copies of which have been placed in the Library.