Limerick parents urged to have children vaccinated after measles outbreak
PARENTS across Limerick are being urged by health authorities to ensure that their children receives the MMR jab following a rise in the number of measles cases since last September.
mid fears of a major outbreak across the country, the HSE said there were 13 confirmed cases of measles locally in the past month. The Department of Public Health has been notified of a further eight suspected cases in Limerick.
Of the 21 cases in the Mid-West, a number of people have required hospital admission, but most have been managed at home.
Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, the party's spokesperson on Health, has called for a major campaign highlighting the importance of the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) jab.
"Measles is a very worrying disease and I am especially alarmed by the very high number of cases which have been diagnosed in the past month alone. I am calling on parents to ensure they have their children vaccinated at the first opportunity. It can be a relatively mild disease, but it can also lead to severe complications and prove fatal," said Deputy O'Sullivan.
In the first three weeks of this year, 88 cases were reported nationally, compared to 55 in the whole of 2008. Fifteen of the cases this year were aged less than 12 months.
A HSE spokesperson said there had been a national outbreak of measles since last September, "mostly among children who have not been vaccinated with MMR, and particularly among Travellers."
Nationally, one-in-10 cases has required hospital care.
The HSE is encouraging parents to ensure that their children have been vaccinated with MMR, and are also encouraging GPs to offer the MMR vaccine to all unvaccinated children who present to them.
Symptoms of measles include high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes (conjunctivitis) and a red rash that starts on the head and spreads down the body. Children are infectious from four days before to four days after rash onset. Unvaccinated children are most affected. The vaccine dose is usually given at 12 months of age and protects about 95 per cent of children. A second dose is routinely given at four to five years of age and ensures that 99 per cent of vaccinated children are protected.
"It is important that all suspected cases are reported to the Department of Public Health as soon as they present so that the appropriate control measures can be put in place, if necessary," advised the HSE.
Meanwhile, the swine flu vaccination programme is moving into its final phase, with the vaccine being made available to the general population through HSE clinics nationwide. Anyone in the target groups who has not yet been vaccinated is advised to attend a HSE clinic for their vaccine before March 31. In addition, anybody who has not yet been offered the vaccine may now attend a HSE clinic for swine flu vaccine.
To date, approximately 800,000 people have been vaccinated and are now protected from any future swine flu circulation.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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