Children in the North East could be at risk from serious illnesses due to missing their routine vaccinations, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned.
The UKHSA North East has urged parents and guardians in the region to make sure their children are up to date with their jabs, including the polio and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) immunisations. The warning comes after new data showed that the number of children up to the age of five getting vaccinated fell across almost all immunisation programmes in the UK in 2021-22.
In the North East, 94.5% of children had completed their first dose of the MMR vaccine by the time they were two years old, down from 95.3% the previous year, while coverage for the second dose by age five was at 91.7% compared to 92.5% in 2020-21. The World Health Organisation recommends vaccination levels should be at 95% to help prevent the spread of serious diseases such as measles and polio.
