The Eastern Health Board has predicted an outbreak of measles within the next year or two, and is warning parents to get their children immunised. The board is concerned that a 1998 study showed the uptake of the vaccination programme for children under two was only 75.7 per cent.
Although the number of reported measles cases has fallen in recent years, the pattern of epidemics - which occur on average every four years - suggests a new outbreak is due this year or next.
Vaccination rates are lowest in the "manual social classes," the EHB says, warning that lower-than-ideal vaccine coverage "means the risk of a drift of the disease into older age groups, which could carry a higher risk of complications".
