A vaccine dose is prepared (Nick Potts/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Hackney has been named as the London borough where young children are most at risk of a measles outbreak.
Only 60.1 per cent of five-year-olds in Hackney have had both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Take-up is also well below average in Camden, Islington, Enfield and Westminster, with fewer than two-thirds of children fully protected by the time they start primary school.
London’s two-dose average of 72.9 per cent is also well below the national average of 85.5 per cent, itself well below the 95 per cent World Health Organisation target.
MMR uptake has fallen to the lowest level in a decade, with a significant drop in parents getting their children immunised since the start of the pandemic.
Some parents said they didn’t realise the NHS was continuing to offer vaccinations or didn’t want to burden the system during Covid.
Children are offered two doses by their GP, the first when they turn one and the second at around three years four months.
