Why, in 2025, the year when our world is the most scientifically advanced it has ever been, are we facing a measles epidemic? It makes absolutely no sense. We have long had an effective, safe vaccine for measles. That’s why the disease had, until recently, retreated to the fringes of daily life: an occasional and mercifully rare unwelcome visitor to remind us of the bad old days; those unhappy times before immunisation arrived to save children from the grim consequences of an awful disease.
But it’s back. Not because it has morphed into a new and vaccine-proof virus. Sadly, it’s because increasing numbers of parents, misled and misinformed by duff, dangerous online hokum, have been tricked into believing that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease.
Actually, enter practically any medical condition into a search engine and along with bona-fide facts you will find a plethora of misinformation, half-baked theories and outright lies. But the internet can be incredibly persuasive, even when it is at its most dangerously dishonest.
And that is certainly the case with measles. Last week a child died in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool after contracting the virus; the second child to succumb to an acute measles infection in the UK this decade.
That may not sound like a large number, setting aside the suffering of the individuals concerned and the devastating impact their deaths will have had on their families. But the fact is that eight years ago Britain chalked up measles elimination status.
Thanks to vaccination, it is an ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE disease. Yet here we are today.
Alder Hey Hospital has disclosed that the child who died was one of no fewer than 17 youngsters treated there in recent weeks after becoming seriously ill with measles. Set that against figures showing uptake of ALL childhood immunisations are steadily falling (combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations are at their lowest for around 20 years) and you can see the way the tide is flowing.
Parents are being spooked by fake science, scare stories and conspiracy theorists online. We need a comprehensive public education programme to challenge this nonsense, now. Lives depend on it.
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If you’re thinking about buying your child or grandchild an ice-cold slushie to cool off this warm weekend, have a care. Slushies can be surprisingly dangerous to youngsters.
Many contain glycerol – not harmful in small doses – added to keep the slushie semi-frozen. But the icy drinks often have huge quantities of glycerol, and that poses a serious threat to small children. There have been recent cases of severe dehydration and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) leading to sudden collapse.
Urgent health advice this week is NO slushies for kiddies aged seven or under, and only ONE for older children. You have been warned!
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Picture the scene. A low-life “boyfriend” goes to the bar to get the drinks in. But he has an ulterior motive. When his girlfriend’s glass is served, he glances surreptitiously around, and then slips a powder or tablet or capsule into it. He has spiked her drink – and God knows what fate awaits her when she’s finished it.
Now picture the same scene, but with a rather different ending. After the drugs have been secreted, and just as the man is about to return to his table, he feels a hard hand on first one shoulder, then the other.
It is two plain-clothed police officers, working undercover to collar toerags like him in the act of spiking drinks. The back of a police van, a remand cell, court, and prison await.
It’s just one scenario in the government’s welcome set of new measures, announced on Thursday, to pursue domestic abusers. They’re based on extremely successful pilot schemes in communities which have seen physical violence cut by 82%, sexual abuse by 88%, stalking by 75% and controlling behaviour by 73%.
Bring it on. The sooner the better.