Dr. Colm Henry:

We are very concerned. We have seen outbreaks in Romania and the west midlands in the UK, and there have been five confirmed cases and, tragically, one death here in Ireland, with also 17 possible cases. We know from zero prevalence studies, which are studies that measure antibodies among people, that there is a particularly high prevalence of negativity in young males, reflecting what we call the Wakefield generation, people who were not vaccinated at a designated time when they were infants or during preschool years. The is as high as 18% in some age groups and areas. We know also that, for six or seven successive quarters, our MMR vaccine uptake rate was below 90%. Our national target is 95%. I remind people that measles is highly contagious. People will be familiar with the R value that we were all experts on during the pandemic and the R value of Covid-19 being 5 or 6. For measles, it is 15, meaning that if someone who has measles is in a room, leaves and you enter the room an hour or two later, you are still at risk of catching measles. It is highly contagious. It is a disease with severe complications and up to one in five people are hospitalised. Complications can include pneumonia and, in rare cases, encephalitis.

We have a catch-up campaign which is focused on people born after 1978, focusing on those groups I mentioned: younger males and, of course, females, but especially males because they have higher levels of zero prevalence negativity for some reason. We are launching 100 clinics in third-level institutions this week alone, addressing under-served populations, international protection applicants and refugees, including Ukrainian refugees, and focusing also on immigrants born before 1978 who live with vulnerable people or pregnant women. Our focus is on the undervaccinated and on those under-served populations. We are bringing the vaccine out as well as providing additional cover through the traditional GP service model for those up to the age of 18. What is the right number to vaccinate? We want to catch anybody who is not vaccinated and who is at risk. Those clinics and the way they will be provided will ensure we capture as many people as possible.