Overview

• The child, one of 17 admitted for measles at Alder Hey since June, died on July 12 and was understood to have other serious health conditions.
• Liverpool’s two-dose MMR vaccination rate for five-year-olds is around 73 percent, far below the 95 percent threshold needed to prevent measles outbreaks.
• Professor Matt Ashton, Liverpool’s director of public health, cautioned that unprotected communities risk rapid transmission of the highly contagious virus.
• Mersey Care NHS Trust and Alder Hey clinicians issued an open letter urging parents and carers to ensure children receive both doses of the MMR vaccine.
• England has seen 529 confirmed measles cases this year, with 357 in children under ten, reflecting stalled childhood vaccine coverage since 2021.