There were 83 diagnosed cases in the last month according to the UK Health Service Authority. Most are children under 10 living in the Borough of Enfield, which has one of the lowest rates of vaccine uptake in the country. Not coincidentally, parts of Enfield including Edmonton, the epicentre of the outbreak, score highly on most indices of deprivation. Because they have not been vaccinated against measles, experts have warned that more children are expected to be diagnosed with fatal neurological complications from measles. These include subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare neurodegenerative condition that usually appears around six to ten years after a measles infection. In the words of Professor Benedict Michael, a professor of neuroscience and chair of charity Encephalitis International’s scientific advisory panel “It’s a gradual but relentlessly progressive brain damage” and “Despite all of our drugs that we throw at it – immune drugs, antivirus drugs – it’s basically universally fatal.”[1]
Between 2000 and 2016, there were only five diagnoses of SSPE in the UK. Six children were diagnosed between 2017 and 2019 and experts such as Professor Ming Lim, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, who has treated multiple children with SSPE, expect the number to rise. Prof Ming is certain that his junior resident colleagues will be taught to recognise SSPE purely because of this resurgence. In his words “If you see one case, you will never want to see another case of SSPE in your lifetime. It is a devastating condition.”[2]
The case of Sarah Walton is vivid example of the horrors of SSPE. She contacted measles at her nursery in 1979 at the age of 11 months, before children usually receive the vaccine. Her mother Jo reports that she recovered well but in 2004 at the age of 25 Sarah developed a myoclonic jerk – an involuntary spasm – that sometimes left her unable to walk. Eventually, she was diagnosed with SSPE and about two months later and a week before she was scheduled to wed her boyfriend, she suffered a massive seizure. In the words of her mother, “She went into the hospital walking and talking. And four weeks later, when she came out, she couldn’t speak and she couldn’t swallow.” Sarah required 24-hour care for the next 20 years and in February 2025, after several bouts of pneumonia, she died in her father’s arms.[3]
Measles: Risks And Protections
It may seem incredible to have to spell out what measles is and its attendant risks in an era where such diseases had been consigned to the medical history books but the long-term, cumulative effects of Dr Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent research on the supposed links between the MMR vaccine and autism; the incessant anti-vaccination misinformation pumped out by “alternative” health influencers and the resultant culture of vaccine hesitancy makes this an essential and potentially life saving task. Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can spread very easily among people who are not fully vaccinated. It usually starts with cold-like symptoms, followed a few days later by a rash that starts on the face then spreads to the body. The spots, which are not usually itchy, are sometimes raised and join together to form blotchy patches.
Measles is spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. One case can generate 18 secondary infections. Nine out of ten non-vaccinated people will catch it if exposed. A person is infectious from when they first have symptoms (about four days before the rash appears) until four days after they get the rash. Health experts recommend opening windows and doors to help reduce its spread, frequent handwashing and immediately binning used tissues.
While many people recover, the risks of measles are serious complications such as pneumonia or brain inflammation. In rare cases, measles can result in long-term disability or death. Babies and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk. Measles can also cause miscarriage or stillbirth, premature birth, and low birthweight.[4]
There is no specific treatment for measles, only the vaccination to prevent catching it, which is part of the measles, rubella, varicella (MMRV) injection that replaced the MMR jab in the UK’s routine childhood programme last month.
Dimensions Of The Measles Crisis
Last month, the UK lost its measles-free status, granted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) where there has been an absence of endemic cases in a country for at least 12 months (isolated cases will always occur, but the transmission chain must be broken). In the UK, transmission did stop in 2016 and 2017 but restarted again in 2018. The pandemic brought another lull, but since 2023 transmission rates have risen alarmingly. In 2023 there were 481 cases, a dramatic spurt from 63 the previous year. In 2024, the outbreak rate hit quadruple figures with 3,681 UK-wide, with 2, 911 in England. Last year, outbreaks were smaller, amounting to 957 cases, but remained continuous. The majority of cases were in children aged 10 and under, and half were in London.[5]
Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA describes how the return of measles “kicked off towards the end of 2023 with outbreaks in Birmingham and Coventry”. Through 2024 it “seeded virtually all the other regions in the country” but the largest outbreaks remained in Birmingham and London. She found that importation of measles found unvaccinated pockets and spread like wildfire. In January 2024, it was reported that more than 50 children had been admitted to Birmingham’s children’s hospital triggering the declaration of a national incident by the UKHSA.[6] The UKHSA has said modelling of a large measles outbreak in London suggests that between 40,000 and 160,000 people could be affected.[7]
Even in high-income regions, measles causes fatality in about one in 5,000 cases. There were two UK deaths in 2025: one an adult, one a child with an underlying immunological problem. In 2024 another child dies similarly; and four adults also died, one from the viral condition SSPE mentioned early, a fatal side-effect that emerges up to eight years after measles in about one in 50,000 cases. As also referred to previously, other complications of measles include severe diarrhoea, pneumonia, ear infection and hearing loss, blindness, and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
Between 2000 and 2016, there were only five diagnoses of SSPE in the UK. Six children were diagnosed between 2017 and 2019 and experts such as Professor Ming Lim, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, who has treated multiple children with SSPE, expect the number to rise. Prof Ming is certain that his junior resident colleagues will be taught to recognise SSPE purely because of this resurgence. In his words “If you see one case, you will never want to see another case of SSPE in your lifetime. It is a devastating condition.”[2]
The case of Sarah Walton is vivid example of the horrors of SSPE. She contacted measles at her nursery in 1979 at the age of 11 months, before children usually receive the vaccine. Her mother Jo reports that she recovered well but in 2004 at the age of 25 Sarah developed a myoclonic jerk – an involuntary spasm – that sometimes left her unable to walk. Eventually, she was diagnosed with SSPE and about two months later and a week before she was scheduled to wed her boyfriend, she suffered a massive seizure. In the words of her mother, “She went into the hospital walking and talking. And four weeks later, when she came out, she couldn’t speak and she couldn’t swallow.” Sarah required 24-hour care for the next 20 years and in February 2025, after several bouts of pneumonia, she died in her father’s arms.[3]
Measles: Risks And Protections
It may seem incredible to have to spell out what measles is and its attendant risks in an era where such diseases had been consigned to the medical history books but the long-term, cumulative effects of Dr Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent research on the supposed links between the MMR vaccine and autism; the incessant anti-vaccination misinformation pumped out by “alternative” health influencers and the resultant culture of vaccine hesitancy makes this an essential and potentially life saving task. Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can spread very easily among people who are not fully vaccinated. It usually starts with cold-like symptoms, followed a few days later by a rash that starts on the face then spreads to the body. The spots, which are not usually itchy, are sometimes raised and join together to form blotchy patches.
Measles is spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. One case can generate 18 secondary infections. Nine out of ten non-vaccinated people will catch it if exposed. A person is infectious from when they first have symptoms (about four days before the rash appears) until four days after they get the rash. Health experts recommend opening windows and doors to help reduce its spread, frequent handwashing and immediately binning used tissues.
While many people recover, the risks of measles are serious complications such as pneumonia or brain inflammation. In rare cases, measles can result in long-term disability or death. Babies and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk. Measles can also cause miscarriage or stillbirth, premature birth, and low birthweight.[4]
There is no specific treatment for measles, only the vaccination to prevent catching it, which is part of the measles, rubella, varicella (MMRV) injection that replaced the MMR jab in the UK’s routine childhood programme last month.
Dimensions Of The Measles Crisis
Last month, the UK lost its measles-free status, granted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) where there has been an absence of endemic cases in a country for at least 12 months (isolated cases will always occur, but the transmission chain must be broken). In the UK, transmission did stop in 2016 and 2017 but restarted again in 2018. The pandemic brought another lull, but since 2023 transmission rates have risen alarmingly. In 2023 there were 481 cases, a dramatic spurt from 63 the previous year. In 2024, the outbreak rate hit quadruple figures with 3,681 UK-wide, with 2, 911 in England. Last year, outbreaks were smaller, amounting to 957 cases, but remained continuous. The majority of cases were in children aged 10 and under, and half were in London.[5]
Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA describes how the return of measles “kicked off towards the end of 2023 with outbreaks in Birmingham and Coventry”. Through 2024 it “seeded virtually all the other regions in the country” but the largest outbreaks remained in Birmingham and London. She found that importation of measles found unvaccinated pockets and spread like wildfire. In January 2024, it was reported that more than 50 children had been admitted to Birmingham’s children’s hospital triggering the declaration of a national incident by the UKHSA.[6] The UKHSA has said modelling of a large measles outbreak in London suggests that between 40,000 and 160,000 people could be affected.[7]
Even in high-income regions, measles causes fatality in about one in 5,000 cases. There were two UK deaths in 2025: one an adult, one a child with an underlying immunological problem. In 2024 another child dies similarly; and four adults also died, one from the viral condition SSPE mentioned early, a fatal side-effect that emerges up to eight years after measles in about one in 50,000 cases. As also referred to previously, other complications of measles include severe diarrhoea, pneumonia, ear infection and hearing loss, blindness, and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
In the case of two year old Ezra Barrett from Walsall who contracted measles in the West Midlands outbreak and who was rushed to A&E after the appearance of a rash on his body, the consultant struggled to insert an IV drip as “His body’s too shut down” due to his raging temperature and ended up being on high-flow oxygen. Ezra has recovered well after a week’s stay in hospital, but his speech is delayed and he is being monitored for hearing loss. His mother Davina Barrett also fears SSPE, and when she first shared Ezra’s story, she received messages challenging her, “saying it’s not true, that the MMR would not have helped Ezra.”[8]
This sadly not unknown anecdote leads to the nub of the contemporary measles resurgence: the critical drop-in vaccination rates and the explanatory factors. The WHO states that herd immunity driven by community-wide vaccination is the only way to prevent measles. This is high due to the very infectious nature of the disease, remaining contagious in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours. The first measles vaccination was offered in the UK in 1968, and the combined MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella in 1988. Last month it switched to MMRV, including protection for varicella (chickenpox). It is offered in two doses, first at 12 months and, from last month, topped up at 18 months (formerly the top-up was scheduled when the child was three years and four months old). Having both doses gives immunity for about 99% of people. The UK’s average coverage in 2024 was 92.3% for the first dose, but 84.4% for the second, falling since the pandemic.[9]
Enfield has one of the lowest MMR vaccine uptake rates in the country, according to UKHSA figures from August 2025 that showed just 64.3% of five-year-olds in Enfield had received both doses of the vaccine in 2024-25. The Sunday Times reported that more than 60 cases of measles had been reported by seven schools and a nursery in Enfield. A message posted on the NHS Ordnance Unity Centre for Health GP surgery’s website described a fast-spreading measles outbreak.” It added:
This sadly not unknown anecdote leads to the nub of the contemporary measles resurgence: the critical drop-in vaccination rates and the explanatory factors. The WHO states that herd immunity driven by community-wide vaccination is the only way to prevent measles. This is high due to the very infectious nature of the disease, remaining contagious in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours. The first measles vaccination was offered in the UK in 1968, and the combined MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella in 1988. Last month it switched to MMRV, including protection for varicella (chickenpox). It is offered in two doses, first at 12 months and, from last month, topped up at 18 months (formerly the top-up was scheduled when the child was three years and four months old). Having both doses gives immunity for about 99% of people. The UK’s average coverage in 2024 was 92.3% for the first dose, but 84.4% for the second, falling since the pandemic.[9]
Enfield has one of the lowest MMR vaccine uptake rates in the country, according to UKHSA figures from August 2025 that showed just 64.3% of five-year-olds in Enfield had received both doses of the vaccine in 2024-25. The Sunday Times reported that more than 60 cases of measles had been reported by seven schools and a nursery in Enfield. A message posted on the NHS Ordnance Unity Centre for Health GP surgery’s website described a fast-spreading measles outbreak.” It added:
During this recent outbreak, one in five children have been hospitalised due to measles and all of them had not been fully immunised.[10]
The social demographics of the parts of Enfield, and indeed the West Midlands, that are being ravaged by the measles outbreaks – working class, BME preponderance, single parenthood – contrast so much with the New Age, Wellness Woo, Natural Health milieu in which the High Priest and Priestesses of the anti-vaccination movement reside – the grift economy of the faux sisterhood of wealthy white women with their pyramid business model for selling “alternative” health products, that it is tempting to view this ongoing public health disaster as a victory for the “pureblood” ideology of this anti-public health movement. The tragedy is that the bogus anti Big Pharma message they promote has found some traction, in the words of Prof Azeem Majeed, the head of primary care and public health at Imperial College, London, “among certain communities” which have “distrust of authority because of bad experience with councils, in health, education, welfare or housing.” For all the main factors likely to affect vaccine uptake are present in Enfield according to Prof Majeed – the prevalence of people from ethnic minorities who had also lower levels of education, deprivation, and how often people moved between different addresses and countries.
The MMR and autism has less purchase now; rather the main drivers of vaccine scepticism now is the wave of Covid 19 untruths disseminated by the Disinformation Dozen through social media and the influence of prominent US politicians such as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. However, compromised access to vaccines in areas of high deprivation must also be factored into the equation. Dr Saliba points to the major restructure of the NHS in 2013-14 which took away from health visitors the power to deliver vaccines. The year-on-year decline in vaccine take up overlapped with the austerity agenda which saw provision for health visitors and Sure Start centres, often venues for vaccinating, slashed. Boroughs like Hackney and Enfield are homes to diverse populations who need tailored engagement including translation services and cooperation of community resources such as mosques and temples with lots of communities.[11]
Finally, while no medicinal product is ever 100% free of side-effects, it is possible that vaccines have become “victims of their own successes” in that memories of the casualties of infectious diseases such as measles have faded. As anti-vaxxers promote their fairy tales of how natural immunity was gained by participation in measles or chicken pox parties, it is instructive to listen to the case of 60-year-old Alan Crowrher from Derbyshire who, born before the vaccine, caught measles when he was five; an experience he “felt normal.” However, the result was profound hearing loss and blindness caused by nerve damage. Today he has 15% of his hearing left. In his 30s, damaged optical nerves were diagnosed; he has 10% of his sight remaining. He has a simple message for parents reluctant to have their child vaccinated: “Come and sit with me.”[12]
References
[1] Phoebe Davis & James Tapper, 'Fears of rise in fatal brain disease as take-up of measles jab continues to fall.' The Observer. 22 February 2026 p.17
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid.
[4] Andrew Gregory, 'Precautions. What are the risks and how do you protect your child.' The Guardian. 17 February 2026
[5] Emily Retter, 'The alarming return of measles.' The Guardian G2 16 February 2026 pp.4-5
[6] Ibid, p.5
[7] Rachel Hall, 'Measles outbreak in London spreading via unvaccinated children, watchdog confirms.' The Guardian. 16 February 2026
[8] Retter, p.5
[9] Ibid
[10] Hall, op cit
[11] Ibid
[12] Ibid
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.
This might be coming uncomfortably closer to home for me as my local newspaper The Colchester Gazette today reports that health officials are concerned that the measles outbreak could spread from Enfield into Essex, Southend and Thurrock. Thanks to all anti vaxxers.
ReplyDeleteBarry - I'm always at odds with this particular topic, as I'm someone that tends to favour bodily autonomy and the right to decide what medical treatments or interventions one takes. Although, this is not an anti-vaccination position per se, neither am I ignorant to the importance of weighing up the right of an individual against a desire to do what appears best for the collective.
DeleteWith that said, I can see some parallels here with other topics.
Consider - The immigration debate as one example.
Here we see some with the concern that to express a certain view or opinion, unfairly results with the assignment of a pejorative label. I think it can and does happen. This can then result with the person receiving the label becoming much more stubborn in their position, and less receptive to any argument against their position.
So to I see it with vaccination. Someone being anti-vax by definition is one thing, but when the term anti-vax along with other words or terms is used as a pejorative, which in many cases it is used as such, it has the same result as I've mentioned above. When ego feels threatened, rationality can often go out the window.
One could say that the unvaccinated are solely responsible for outbreaks, and this could be correct. But then we could also analyse the cause(s) behind the increase in the unvaccinated. It's not impossible to imagine scenarios, where one with concerns about vaccination can be pushed towards and become stubborn in an anti-vaccination position, due to the language and behaviour involved of those with an opposing position. Therefore it could be possible that some that are vaccinated may also bear some responsibility.
I'm sure you will live to tell the tale, Barry...
ReplyDelete