NHS sending urgent message to all adults of certain age in three UK areas

The NHS is writing to all 19-25 year-olds in Greater Manchester with an urgent message amid a surge in cases of measles, it was revealed today.

More than 900,000 young people who did not get their measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab as children are being invited to take part in a catch-up campaign amid a rising number of diagnosed cases.

The NHS is writing to 19 to 25-year-olds in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands – inviting them to book an appointment. These young adults would have been eligible for a jab when the vaccination rates began to fall in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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One in five Greater Manchester children have not had their full childhood immunisations by the time they get to primary school, figures show. Health bosses say the trend of declining childhood vaccinations 'needs to be urgently reversed', with the ongoing measles outbreak serving as a 'reminder that these diseases have not gone away'.

In Greater Manchester, 83.5 per cent of children are fully protected by their fifth birthday, meaning one in five are not fully protected by the time they’ve started school.

The M.E.N. also told last week of a drive to protect children with the MMR vaccine being stepped up across the north west and Greater Manchester.

Coverage of the MMR started to decline following a 1998 report by Andrew Wakefield which falsely linked the jab with autism, according to a UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) 2023 measles briefing document. Even though the claim was discredited, and Wakefield struck off the medical register, the vaccination programme took years to recover.

Now MMR vaccine coverage is the lowest it has been for more than a decade,