Concern continues over low vaccination uptake in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire Council’s health and wellbeing board will meet this week to discuss the region’s current health, strategy and funding updates.

Papers to be discussed show ongoing concern over how many people are taking up various vaccinations.

The reports follow months of concern about an outbreak of measles in the West Midlands spreading to the area.

Measles can be prevented by giving young children the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab, which is available free on the NHS.

The rate of childhood immunisations in the county overall is performing better than the rest of the East Midlands and England, but has declined since the pandemic.

The prevalence of the one-dose MMR jab for two-year-olds is performing better in Nottinghamshire at 92 per cent compared with the East Midlands (91.2 per cent).

In the city the rate is around 84 per cent.

Nottinghamshire county’s child MMR rate has actually risen since March, when it was 86 per cent.

But NHS leaders want to see the rate rise to 100 per cent and say 95 per cent is needed to achieve herd immunity and supress outbreaks.

Meeting papers said: “Overall coverage has remained in part within acceptable thresholds to maintain herd immunity but has dipped since the pandemic.”

The latest Government data shows some vaccinations of two-year-olds across England still fall below 90 per cent, with the uptake of the overall childhood vaccination programme in consistent decline over the past 10 years.

However, a recent survey by the UK Health Secruity Agency showed 89 per cent of parents believed that vaccinations worked, 84 per cent believed they are safe and 82 per cent had trust in immunisations.

Vaccination variations also appear to differ between communities, with Mansfield, Worksop and Newark having lower MMR uptakes, the papers say.

Lesser vaccination rates appear to be prevalent between different ethnic minority groups, people who experience homelessness and those who are not registered with healthcare providers.

There has been effort to increase immunisation uptake in Nottinghamshire in the past year, such as targeted engagement activities, an MMR vaccination catch-up initiative and a new commissioned vaccination service for school-aged children.

Further details around the report and vaccination uptake issues will be discussed on at the meeting on Wednesday, July 24.