Over 1,500 cases of measles have been notified to the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) so far this year, compared with 148 for all of last year, the NDSC has confirmed.
The NDSC has appealed to parents to ensure their children get the MMR vaccination against the infection. By mid-September, 1,501 cases had been reported to the NDSC, compared with 105 cases in the same period last year and 148 for the whole year.
Most of the cases have been in the greater Dublin area. The three health boards in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area (Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow) had recorded 1,251 cases by last night. This is 254 more than on July 1st.
Most of the cases in Dublin (758) have been in the Northern Area Health Board, which includes the north inner city, where the current epidemic began to emerge at Christmas. The epidemic has claimed the lives of two children.
"The most important message is to get children vaccinated," Dr Derval Igoe, a specialist in public health medicine at the NDSC told The Irish Times. "Measles is a highly infectious disease. If you are not vaccinated and you are close to somebody who has it, you will get it."
Complications are common in children with measles, according to the NDSC. They include a severe cough and breathing difficulties (croup), ear infections, pneumonia and conjunctivitis. Inflammation of the brain occurs in fewer than 1 in 1,000 measles cases and 25 per cent of those affected are left with brain damage. Measles infection during pregnancy can result in the loss, or early birth, of the baby.
The epidemic has been blamed on the relatively low uptake of the MMR vaccine by Irish parents. Levels vary throughout the State, but are well below the recommended 95 per cent.
Some parents are concerned about the MMR vaccine because of fears that it may be associated with Crohn's disease and autism. But the NDSC says that "all the scientific evidence points to there being no link between MMR vaccine and Crohn's disease and autism".
It says that in countries in Europe where there has been a low uptake of MMR vaccine, large outbreaks of measles have occurred. "In the Netherlands more than 2,300 cases have arisen in the past year among a community that are philosophically opposed to vaccination. Three of these children have died, 53 have been hospitalised, four of whom have developed encephalitis [inflammation of the brain].
"In addition, more than 500 children were treated at home for complications of measles, mainly respiratory tract infections."
Vaccination against measles was introduced in 1985 and immediately cut the number of cases from 9,903 to 451. There was a sharp rise to 4,328 in 1993 which the NDSC says was due to "not enough children being immunised". pomorain@irish-times.ie
National Disease Surveillance Centre: http://www.ndsc.ie