Coventry pop-up clinics to boost measles vaccinations, as cases reach historic high
Pop-up clinics have opened across Coventry to boost vaccination rates against measles, as the West Midlands experiences its highest number of measles cases since the mid-1990s.
Vaccination clinics will be hosted in all secondary schools in Coventry and in 21 primary schools.
They will offer two doses of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is considered the most effective way to prevent the highly infectious disease.
Lily Makurah, a public health consultant from Coventry City Council told the BBC: “On top of the opportunity to be vaccinated at a GP, we’ve selected some schools to offer some pop-up clinics offering MMR for pupils at the school, their siblings, and also their parents and teachers so we get to vaccinate as many people as possible over the coming weeks.”
Coventry City Council has so far deemed these clinics a success, with the rate of pupils protected by the MMR vaccine more than doubling. There are now plans to make these pop-up clinics part of a long-term plan to improve vaccination uptake.
Ms Makurah advocated for such a move in a City Council meeting on February 28. She said: “If we’re finding that school-based pop-ups work, then why aren’t we doing that more long term?”
Only 85% of children starting primary school in the UK have had both jabs, below the target of 95% necessary to stop the disease from spreading.
Cases of measles have been on the rise, with a sharp increase in 1,603 suspected cases in England and Wales in 2023, compared to 735 in 2022. The surge prompted the UK Health Security Agency to declare a “national incident” in January 2024.
Only 85% of children starting primary school in the UK have had both jabs, below the target of 95% necessary to stop the disease from spreading.
Some cases have been linked to the false 1998 claim by Andrew Wakefield that the MMR jab could be linked to autism. Thousands of young adults born soon after the study, now in their 20s, were not vaccinated.
However, experts have noted that of the 209 lab-confirmed cases of measles between January and November 2023, the majority were in children under 10.
In the UK, about 1 in 5,000 afflicted people die from measles, which is typically more severe in adults.
Measles usually starts with cold-like symptoms, followed by a rash a few days later. Some people may also get small spots in their mouth.
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