Thirty-four children have been infected by a measles outbreak in north London, with lab testing confirming the cases and almost 30 more suspected. The outbreak has been reported in seven schools and a nursery in Enfield, with some children requiring hospital treatment.
Dudu Sher-Arami, Enfield’s director of public health, warned of a serious threat to the wider capital, describing the potential for a “much greater and bigger pan-London outbreak” due to residents travelling across the city. London has “one of the lowest, if not the lowest, vaccination uptake rates” in the country, she said.
Temporary vaccination clinics are being held in schools and throughout Enfield, where more than a fifth of children are not inoculated against measles, mumps or rubella by the age of five. A government campaign promoting childhood vaccination is expected to launch next week, using social media, YouTube and radio adverts to counter vaccine scepticism.
Last month, the World Health Organization declared that the UK is no longer considered to have eliminated measles, as transmission was re-established in 2024. This follows a plateau in vaccination coverage and a surge in cases, with 3,681 cases recorded in the UK in 2024.
According to UK Health Security Agency figures, 91.9% of five-year-olds had received one dose of the MMR vaccine in 2024-25, unchanged from the previous year and the lowest level since 2010-11. Only 83.7% had received both doses, the lowest since 2009-10, well below the 95% target for herd immunity.
