County Durham Mother’s Vaccination Plea after a “terrification” of measles

Nowhere in the northeast of England and Cumbria, the rate of vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) of 95% necessary to reach “the immunity of the herd”, how the disease is not spread, according to the latest figures.

Middlesbrough has the lowest rate in the region at 82.5%, but against 77.9% the previous year.

The mother of a child – too young to have the MMR but which could have been protected by the immunity of the herd – said that the experience of measles at the age of seven months had been “terrifying”.

Medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, Dr Catherine Monaghan, warned measles was dangerous and “one of the most infectious diseases in the world”.

Middlesbrough experienced the largest increase in the region’s vaccination rate in 2024-25, while Cumbria had the highest overall rate in the region, but saw him slightly 94.8% in 2023-24 to 94.3%.

In 12 areas of local authority in the region, eight have experienced a light or moderate increase, but are still between 82% and 94%.

Health experts fear that a drop in the vaccination rate can lead to new epidemics.

They say that children should have both doses of JAB MMR to be fully protected and prevent the virus transmitted to other children and to vulnerable people who could not have it.

Single teacher Scarlett Jones, by Bishop Middleham in Durham County, said his daughter suddenly fell seriously ill in August from last year.

“She was just placed on her back, staring at the ceiling, very insensitive,” said the 29 -year -old woman.

The baby’s temperature was 39.4 ° C (102.9F), it became more disk, her eyes were red and swollen, and she had trouble breathing, she said.

Although paramedical paramedics arrived in a few minutes and knew that the baby had to go to the hospital, Ms. Jones could not contact her husband Dan, a professional footballer, who was in training.

“They are not allowed at all to their phones at all,” she said.

“So I called the club store and someone ran on the field.”

While the baby’s temperature continued to increase, doctors first considered septicemia, then meningitis, before it developed a rash and a consultant found distinctive white spots in her mouth.

“It took them a while to diagnose measles because they had never seen one case before,” said Ms. Jones.

The doctor asked if medical students could be brought because they had never seen the disease with first-hand, she added.

The measles clears normally within seven to 10 days but can cause serious complications.

Dr. Monaghan said: “Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world and it can be very, very dangerous.

“This can cause pneumonia, it can also cause swelling of the brain which can leave you catastrophic diseases and which change your life – therefore blindness, deafness.

“The worst case is that you can die.”

Dr. Monaghan said the doctors were concerned about the resurgence of the virus, with babies and young children, pregnant women and people with a weakened immune system at increased risk.

The disease was prevented from 95 to 98% with the ROR vaccine, she said.

The measles had been largely eradicated but, as the absorption of the jab has fallen, the number of cases increased.

Infantile health experts have said that some parents cannot vaccinate their children because they underestimate the severity of the disease.

After the introduction of the MMR, concerns were raised that it was linked to autism.

In 1988, researcher Andrew Wakefield said that the two were linked, but his work was rejected later and was struck off by General Medical Council in 2010.

The prices also dropped during the COVVI-19 pandemic, because routine appointments were missed.

The World Health Organization says that 95% of a population must be vaccinated to prevent epidemics and protect non -vaccinated.

The figures for the UK Health Security Agency for 2024-25 suggest that 91.9% of five-year-old children in England received a dose of the ROR vaccine, unchanged compared to the previous year and the lowest level since 2010-11.

MMR doses are regularly given at one year and three years and four months.

Older children and adults can have JAB if they have not been vaccinated earlier.

While children go back to school, it is worrying that there is an increase in cases.

Dr. Monaghan said the two doses offered protection against “something that can be catastrophic and potentially fatal”.