Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that statistics on the infection rate for measles do not include people who have received the live measles vaccine and contracted a measles-like rash and fever.

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