Measles is back and it is killing our children

Our childhood vaccinations schemes have been so ­successful over the years that many people have never seen a child with diphtheria, polio, measles or mumps.

These adults are fortunately ­ignorant to the suffering a child ­experiences with any of these ­infections and unknowing of the serious complications that can attend them, some of them life-threatening.

So it comes as a shock when we see these childhood illnesses re-emerge when parents fail to vaccinate ­children, often believing the infections are a thing of the past. They’re not. They’re lurking and ready to erupt.

We are seeing such a scenario in the Philippines. It’s a lesson we must not ignore because it’s the deadliest outbreak that’s been seen in decades and it could happen here.

The Philippines has recorded 315 deaths, most of them children, from measles since the start of this year, the country’s health ministry said. Fewer were killed by the virus in the entire World Health Organisation European region in the whole of 2018.

From just January 1 to mid-March more than 20,000 measles cases were recorded in the Philippines, up from 2,400 in the whole of 2017, and 18,000 in 2018. Vaccination rates fell from a 2014 high of 88% to 73% in 2017, then plummeted to about 55% last year.

Lotta Sylwander, the country’s Unicef representative, said the agency was “deeply concerned” about the outbreak, with about 2.5 million ­children under five not vaccinated.

“There has been an unwillingness on the part of parents to vaccinate their children on time,” she said.

Four out of five of those killed by measles this year weren’t vaccinated. Measles has now gained a firm ­foothold in the densely populated capital Manila, as well as four other regions, and risks are spreading further. Parents in the Philippines are being told to take up free vaccinations.

But measles has also been on the rise in regions such as Europe and the US, because of uneven coverage that leaves pockets of increased ­susceptibility to the disease.

The deadliest previous outbreak was in Thailand, which has generally good coverage, but where 22 people died last year in the southern region.

The number of cases worldwide rose 30% from 2016 to 2017. Globally, first dose vaccination coverage has stalled at 85% for several years, while second dose coverage is 67%. The coverage needed for herd immunity is 95%.

Last month, the WHO named vaccine hesitancy as one of its top 10 threats to global health for 2019.

If we continue failing to vaccinate our children we could end up with death rates like the ­Philippines.