Just days after health chiefs cautioned of a huge outbreak of measles, mumps and rubella in London, new data shows how the virus is on the rise across the UK
There’s been a massive spike in the case numbers of a dangerous Victorian disease in the first few months of this year.
Data from the UK Health Security Agency shows how a number highly infectious diseases are on the uptick once again. Despite vaccines being widely and freely available, measles, mumps and rubella have seen their rates increase as much as five fold in the first quarter of this year, compared to periods of last year.
This comes after health chiefs previously warned London could be on track to hit a terrifying measles outbreak of up to 160,000 cases and the shocking rises paint a worrying picture. Rates are now threatening to return towards higher figures seen before the pandemic.
From January to March this year, the UK has already had a suspected 454 cases. Similarly, there’s over 1,600 possible cases of mumps, and 66 of Rubella. The majority of these are in London, which often acts as a disease hotspot given its frequency of international travellers and density of population.