Prime minister urges urgent action to halt measles spread

The prime minister has urged urgent action to improve vaccination uptake after more than 230 cases of measles were reported in the UK during first quarter of 2019 following a small but steady decline in vaccination coverage in recent years. It means that the UK has lost its ‘measles-free’ status with the World Health Organisation (WHO) – three years after the virus was eliminated in the country. The WHO have stated that in the first six months of 2019 reported measles cases globally are almost three times as many as the same time last year. Measles is now endemic in countries including