Measles outbreak warning

OLDHAM should be bracing itself for a measles epidemic unless parents get their children protected against it.

That’s the view of Health Protection Agency (HPA) doctors who are urging parents to take up the MMR vaccination following a measles outbreak in Cheshire.

And doctors have warned the North-West is on the cusp of an epidemic of the potentially deadly virus.

Latest reports confirm that there have been 22 GP diagnoses of measles in Cheshire.

In Oldham, there have been 15 notified cases of measles this year so far.

Dr Rosemary McCann, the Health Protection Agency’s immunisation lead for the North-West, said: “We are on the cusp of a measles epidemic.

“We must do all we can to head it off by encouraging parents to immunise their children.

“The only sure way for a child to avoid measles is to have two doses of the MMR vaccine — preferably by age five, but at any age up to 18 if previously unvaccinated.”

Classic symptoms of measles are a fever, cough, red and painful eyes, swollen glands, loss of appetite and a rash which tends to follow three to four days after the onset of the above symptoms. Complications can include an ear infection, pneumonia/bronchitis, convulsions and diarrhoea.