Flawed Research On Measles Prompts Growing U.K. Epidemic

Nearly a decade ago, at least one million children of British parents were not given a vaccination for the measles due to currently rejected research, and now U.K. health officials are trying to stop a new epidemic of the contagious disease, according to ABC News.

The measles is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus and "spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face."

The U.K., which once recorded only several dozen cases of the measles every year, has seen more than 1,200 cases this year. There was a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. Europe currently ranks second behind Romania for the disease.

Emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend last month in Wales, "the epicenter of the outbreak," in addition to immunization drives that have began elsewhere across the country with health officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.

In addition, a new concern of rubella, or "German measles," respiratory viral infection that has arisen in a small Welsh community, according to the Global Dispatch.

"We can't sit around and wait for rubella outbreaks to follow measles - now is the time to catch up and stay ahead of rubella," said Joff McGill, Lead on Rubella and Immunization at Sense. "We must act now to protect pregnant women and their unborn babies. Women who are unsure of their vaccination history and are thinking about becoming pregnant should contact their GP for advice."

Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle in Wales is helping to convince some parents that their children need the MMR shot.

"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.

Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the epidemics are the legacy of the "Wakefield scare," a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that "suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR."

The study is now widely rejected by scientists, but at the time of its publication, "MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine - from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent."

Andrew Wakefield was stripped of the right to practice medicine in the U.K. by Britain's top medical board, after the board ruled that Wakefield and his colleagues "showed a 'callous disregard' for the children in the study, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests" such as paying children for blood samples at his Wakefield's son's birthday party and later joking about the incident. In addition, several large studies failed to find any scientific connection between autism and the vaccination, causing the theory to be discredited. 

Wakefield also won support from Hollywood celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy, who wrote a book linking her son's autism with his childhood vaccinations. 

However, the scientific rumors have an impact nearly 15 years later, as now "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said. 

The measles vaccine was first introduced in 1960s, and cut cases of the deadly, rash-causing illness dramatically. Death rates due to the measles have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide since 2001, and Cambodia recently "marked more than a year without a single case." However, the measles still remains one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 around the world, killing more than 150,000 people every year.

To stop the current measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children in the U.K. need to be fully immunized, unlike in the U.S. where most states require children to be vaccinated against the illness before starting school. Although parents in the U.K. are advised to have their children immunized, there is currently no requirement, and Britain's Department of Health said "it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination" despite recent outbreaks.