WHO removes UK's measles-free nation status as deaths rise and vaccinations fall

The UK yesterday lost its status as a measles-free country after a rise in deaths and fall in the proportion of children having the MMR jab in recent years.

- Denis Campbell

The World Health Organization no longer classifies Britain as a country that has eliminated measles because the disease has become “reestablished” there, it said.

The WHO said five other European countries were was no longer measles free, including Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

The UK was adjudged by the WHO to have eliminated the disease between 2021 and 2023. But recent increases in the number of recorded cases of measles - 3,681 in 2024 - as well as rises in the number of outbreaks and deaths it has caused has led to a rethink.

There were 20 deaths from measles in the six years between 2019 and 2025 - the same number as between 1999 and 2018.

Doctors, public health experts and local councils said the WHO's decision reflected the country's diminishing uptake of MMR vaccination, which they linked to vaccine hesitancy and parents' difficulty in getting appointments for their children to be immunised.