Measles in the UK

You asked

Please could you answer the following questions:

1) How many people died from measles in the UK each year?

2) A break-down of the ages of people dying from measles?

3) How many people suffered permanent blindness as a result of measles? And what were their ages?

4) How many people suffered permanent deafness as a result of measles? And what were their ages?

5) How many instances of measles were reported (including the vaccine strain of measles)?

6) How many instances of the vaccine strain of measles were reported?

7) How many of those dying from measles were fully vaccinated against measles?

8) How many of those dying from measles were partially vaccinated against measles?

9) How many of those dying from measles were not vaccinated against measles? And of those not vaccinated, how many of those were not vaccinated as a result of being immune-suppressed and not advised to have the vaccine?

10) How many people died, suffered permanent deafness or blindness, encephalitis or serious complications as a result of receiving the Measles or MMR vaccine?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Unfortunately we do not hold all the information you requested. We are responsible for publishing deaths by underlying cause of death for England and Wales using the information supplied on the death certificate. Public Health England (FOI@phe.gov.uk) or NHS digital (enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk) may be better placed to help you.

We do not hold information for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The most recent year for which mortality statistics are available for England and Wales is 2017 and the information you requested in questions 1 and 2 can be found in:

1. The 20th Century Mortality Files https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160111174808/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-215593
2. The 21st Century Mortality dataset, England & Wales 2001-2017 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/the21stcenturymortalityfilesdeathsdataset

Please be aware that cause of death is currently coded using Version 10 of the International classification of diseases (ICD-10). Deaths registered between 2001 and 2017 with an underlying cause of measles would be assigned the ICD-10 code B059 - https://icd.who.int/browse10/2014/en#/B05.9. ICD-10 was introduced in England and Wales in January 2001 and replaced the pre-existing ICD9. Previous versions of the ICD exist and should be referred to in deaths registered with an underlying cause of measles (table 1).

Other special extracts and tabulations of deaths data for England and Wales are available (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement of costs, where appropriate). For any further information or queries, you can contact the team directly at: vsob@ons.gov.uk