Schools put on alert in new measles outbreak

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Health officials are investigating 82 cases in south London, 74 of them in children.

Hospital staff have been screened and immunised after patients on a ward started showing symptoms.

Schools are on alert and parents are being advised to have their children immunised as soon as possible.

The outbreak, in Lewisham, is the second in London in five months. In November 12 children went down with the virus in Barnet. In Hackney, nearly 300 have been infected since an outbreak last June.

Dr Chris Watts, director of public health at Lewisham primary care trust, said: "We have a major problem with measles in Lewisham. We must stop measles spreading."

The number of confirmed and suspected cases in the borough now stands at 74 children - 24 of them aged under five - and eight adults.

University Hospital Lewisham has been affected. An infected patient spread the bug on the children's ward, leaving nine people with the illness.

Mothers are being urged to make sure their children are vaccinated against measles, which can cause meningitis, pneumonia and liver infection.

Experts are blaming the outbreak on scares about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which has led to parents shunning the jab.

The virus spreads rapidly unless at

least 95 per cent of children in a community have been protected via vaccination.

But London has one of the worst take-up rates for MMR - in some parts the rate is well below 95 per cent - and there are dramatic differences across the capital. In Lewisham only 64 per cent of children have been vaccinated.

Many parents refused to have their children immunised after a study linked the vaccine to autism. The research was carried out by Dr Andrew Wakefield, who is currently facing disciplinary proceedings at the General Medical Council.

His findings have been widely rejected by scientists, and the latest research has concluded that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe.

Take-up of the jab is beginning to rise again.