Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has published on distinguishing between rashes caused by the measles vaccine and those arising from the wild strain of measles.

While post vaccine rash and fever is generally mild, distinguishing from wild-type measles is not based on clinical examination, rather it is based on a combination of laboratory analysis, information on the timing of vaccine and epidemiological information. The national measles guidelines describe the management and investigation of suspected cases of measles, and is available to view at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-measles-guidelines

Statistics on confirmed measles cases are reported by vaccination status and are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-mumps-and-rubella-lab-confirmed-cases-in-england-2019