Urgent measles jabs campaign.LIVERPOOL and Wirral parents are being urged to take urgent action to prevent a measles measles or rubeola (r bē`ələ), highly contagious disease of young children, caused by a filterable virus and spread by droplet spray from the nose, mouth, outbreak in the region by ensuring their children
are fully immunised.
Liverpool PCT (Private Communications Technology) A protocol from Microsoft that provides secure transactions over the Web. See security protocol. is offering the MMR vaccine MMR vaccine Live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine A trivalent vaccine containing an aqueous suspension of live attenuated strains of measles, mumps, and rubella viruses grown in chick or duck embryo cells. See Killed vaccine, Live attenuated vaccine. to thousands of children and teenagers from 13 months to 18 years to reduce the risk of a measles outbreak in the city. And yesterday Wirral Primary Care Trust confirmed 500 two-year-olds have no protection from the virus, around 600 children aged five years and 7,000 children up to the age of 16 are not fully protected. Doctors and nurses in Liverpool have reported 18 suspected cases of measles in recent weeks. Spit tests are being carried out to check if these are true cases of measles. Four have been confirmed to date. The health protection agency has announced similar campaigns in Cheshire after an outbreak in the Sandbach area. Dr Emer Coffey, Consultant in Public Health with Liverpool PCT, said: "We are very concerned by the arrival of measles in Liverpool. "We have not had confirmed cases of measles in Liverpool for several years. These reported cases are spread throughout the city. "We are concerned that there is a risk of a large outbreak of measles in Liverpool as measles is highly infectious and spreads very easily." |
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