![\"Rebecca](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_image00034jpeg.jpg\")
Rebecca Archer with her daughter, Renae(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)<\/p>\nOne part of Greater Manchester has the third highest number of measles cases of in England, and the highest in the north – and one family there knows the devastation it can cause all-too-wellRebecca Archer with her daughter, Renae(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)<\/p>\n
Measles has been vaccinated against so effectively, for more than 50 years, that some of the country\u2019s most experienced consultants say they have only ever seen a handful of cases.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s common knowledge that measles is one of the most contagious illnesses on Earth, and can kill.<\/p>\n
But, as schools kick out and the summer holidays start, one part of Greater Manchester is lighting up with warnings as a hotspot for the deadly disease.<\/p>\n
Tragic proof of its severity is not hard to find. Just last month, a child who was ill with measles<\/a> and other health conditions died at Alder Hey Children\u2019s Hospital in Liverpool.<\/p>\n For the best ideas on days out, shopping and parenting issues, get the Manchester Family newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Salford<\/a> now has the third-highest number of measles cases in England, with 35 confirmed by lab scientists. That\u2019s a rise of eight in the last month.<\/a><\/p>\n And Salford is not alone, there have been 674 cases across the country since January 1, the majority in children under the age of 10, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).<\/p>\n Just five years ago, the UK was deemed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to have eradicated measles<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet, amid a global rise in the illness, those same WHO officials warn that \u2018measles is back, and it\u2019s a wake-up call\u2019. So, how did we get here?<\/p>\n ‘We thought we’d got rid of it, but yet we’re having this conversation’<\/p>\n A drop in the number of children receiving their childhood vaccines came in the wake of Covid-19<\/a>, which brought missed routine jabs as people were less likely to get to appointments, or catch up with them once the moment had passed.<\/p>\n Many doctors have referenced \u2018vaccine fatigue\u2019 brought on by the introduction of the coronavirus<\/a> vaccine and its boosters as musts for keeping out of isolation and lockdown.<\/p>\n The pandemic also brought a sinister swathe of vaccine conspiracy theories that put lives at risk. Since then, vaccine hesitancy has leaked beyond coronavirus and had an impact on the uptake of other protective jabs.<\/p>\n It has often been cited as a major reason why the uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) has been falling.<\/p>\n One paediatric consultant, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says \u2018there are parents who are anxious about vaccinating their children \u2013 but that\u2019s only one small part of the answer\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe impact of the MMR vaccine has been profound. It\u2019s a game changer. The vaccine was thought to have knocked measles on its head, but we\u2019re having this conversation,\u201d Professor Steven Taylor told the Manchester Evening News.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes the vaccines aren\u2019t available, or they are but at a hugely inconvenient time. It might be that parents have to travel at a hugely inconvenient time at a cost that the poorest families just can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are logistical barriers if the local surgery is only open a few hours one or two days a week.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople might not know whether their child has been vaccinated. We\u2019re good at taking a lot of data, but not very good at sharing it.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes it\u2019s down to resources and cost. People living on a financial knife edge might be facing a question of \u2018do I go on a bus to get vaccinated or do I get a proper tea?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are difficult decisions being made.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘I thought she’d recovered as a baby, but measles killed my child a decade later’<\/p>\n Some Salford families already know all-too-well the consequences of fewer children being vaccinated against measles.<\/p>\n Rebecca Archer’s daughter, Renae, 10, died from a rare brain disease<\/a> known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), caused by a mutation of the measles virus, developing months or years after a measles infection and targeting the central nervous system.<\/p>\n Renae caught measles at just five months old, before she was eligible for the vaccination at 12 months.<\/p>\n At first, Rebecca believed Renae had recovered from measles \u2013 saying she was poorly for a few days but \u2018everything went back to normal\u2019.<\/p>\n A decade later, the disease came back to devastate the family.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first sign was when I got a phone call from school when Renae was 10 in July 2024,\u201d Rebecca told the M.E.N.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a seizure in school that day that marked the first sign of illness.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought she\u2019d recovered from measles as a baby. Nobody knew until days before she died that her illness had been caused by her having the measles years before.\u201d<\/p>\n Renae started having seizures every week and doctors could not find out why, until an MRI scan revealed brain swelling.<\/p>\n Renae\u2019s two-month-long battle began<\/a>, and her mum watched as she lost the little daughter she knew.<\/p>\n \u201cRenae had been really good at writing, but her writing had changed. She became sleepy and snappy. She kept saying her head was hurting,\u201d said Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she was in hospital, she was finding it hard to open her eyes, at one point she couldn\u2019t eat. It progressed quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wasn\u2019t as independent as usual, getting dressed, going to the toilet.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was completely out of the blue. Even towards the end of Renae\u2019s illness, I didn\u2019t think it\u2019d be fatal.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought the doctors would get to the bottom of what was causing it in time, but that didn\u2019t happen until she was in intensive care. She\u2019d lost a lot of her brain activity by then.\u201d<\/p>\n Just 10 days after Renae\u2019s heartbreaking death, Rebecca gave birth to her fourth and youngest child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened earlier than planned because the baby was small and because of the stress,\u201d said Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how I coped, I just had to stay strong because Renae was being strong.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still confused, you wouldn\u2019t think measles would do that years later.\u201d<\/p>\n The uptake of vaccines had been falling long before the pandemic.<\/p>\n Last January, the government admitted that the warning signs of a meteoric rise in measles \u2018could have been seen from space\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n An \u2018entirely preventable illness\u2019, but \u2018there has been a gradual decline in [vaccination] coverage over 10 years\u2019, said the then-parliamentary under-secretary of state for health and social care, Maria Caulfield.<\/p>\n The World Health Organisation (WHO) says getting 95% of children vaccinated is essential to achieving \u201cherd immunity,\u201d which stops illnesses from transmitting across the population.<\/p>\n The country did once have that title, but now, in Salford, just four in five children (81.0%) had received both doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab by their fifth birthday.<\/p>\n In other areas of the region, the rates are even lower, including Manchester (74.6%), Oldham<\/a> (79.8%), and Rochdale<\/a> (80.2%).<\/p>\n The Covid-19 pandemic wasn\u2019t the first time people have rejected vaccines.<\/p>\n There was the impact in the early 2000s on the \u2018Wakefield generation\u2019 of children whose parents did not vaccinate them after false claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism by Dr Andrew Wakefield \u2013 which have been extensively investigated and proven to be fake.<\/p>\n The aftermath of the Wakefield scandal has now largely faded, but the challenge of families having a trusted medic in their lives remains, says Professor Turner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have created an environment where it\u2019s not so easy to do what parents know is the right thing to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cGPs and health visitors don\u2019t really exist anymore in the same way it used to. That relationship with a trusted professional isn\u2019t as strong or common as it used to be.<\/p>\n \u201cFor first-time parents, you get a new baby and you think \u2018what am I going to do with this?\u2019 If you don\u2019t have this trusted professional, you might take the advice of the internet, of rumour and hearsay.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a considerable part of what\u2019s happening at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Open your eyes before it’s too late’<\/p>\n Some experts say that the success of the vaccine in removing the measles, and its terrifying results, out of society has bred complacency.<\/p>\n Professor Turner says that recent headlines are chipping that away: \u201cFive years ago, complacency would have been a valid argument about lacking uptake of the jab.<\/p>\n “But there are recent cases which will have registered in just about every parents\u2019 memory.\u201d<\/p>\n Parents like Rebecca can attest to that.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to open their eyes,\u201d the Salford mum continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some children who, for medical reasons, can\u2019t be vaccinated \u2013 they\u2019re the most vulnerable because of the people who aren\u2019t vaccinated but can be.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they get a vaccine, it can prevent the child who can\u2019t have a vaccine from getting measles and it will save their life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the same with Renae \u2013 if other children had been vaccinated, she might not have come into contact with measles when she was too young to have been protected herself.<\/p>\n \u201cOr if she did come into contact with the measles eventually, it might have been later in life and she\u2019d have had the vaccine by then.<\/p>\n \u201cRenae still had all her vaccines when she was old enough, even after she\u2019d already had measles, and all three of her siblings did too.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never think it can kill someone until it happens to you, you don\u2019t open your eyes before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n Rebecca plans to take her campaign of raising awareness of measles to the health secretary, to insist more is done to up the number of MMR jabs given out.<\/p>\n For Professor Taylor, addressing deprivation in places like Greater Manchester will help people put their health first.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could replace measles with dementia, heart attacks, asthma \u2013 it\u2019s about inequality of health care. It starts with education, attitudes to health within individuals and communities, social norms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also about having a trusted professional \u2013 whether that\u2019s a GP or primary care presence in the community.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth visitors used to be the beating heart of care in the community. There has been a 40% reduction in the last eight years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also need more of a paediatric presence in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n He put out an urgent call: \u201cIf you are a parent, carer, grandparent of a child that\u2019s eligible, make sure your child gets vaccinated.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these vaccines have been in use for the last 50 years \u2013 we know how safe the vaccines are. This vaccine has a proven track record, no side effects, but it saves your life.<\/p>\n \u201cMumps can affect male fertility, rubella in pregnant women can mean the death of the baby.<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires everybody to do this differently, it\u2019s the fault of us all. But that means it\u2019s within all of our gifts to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n Act now<\/p>\n![\"Renae](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_renaeJPGjpgRen.jpg\")
Renae as a baby(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)<\/p>\n![\"Renae](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_image00083jpeg.jpg\")
Renae and Rebecca(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)Toppling vaccination rates<\/p>\n![\"Renae](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Ren2JPG.jpg\")
Renae was fine for 10 years before symptoms developed(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)<\/p>\n![\"Renae](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_ren1JPG.jpg\")
Renae ‘liked to make everyone laugh'(Image: NHS Greater Manchester)<\/p>\n