Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy for all patients with suspected measles to be sent an oral fluid kit.

In the UK, an appropriate test to confirm or discard cases is essential. As per the guidelines, all suspected measles cases reported to Health Protection Teams are sent an oral fluid kit for testing at the Virus Reference Department at UKHSA Colindale.

The UK Health Security Agency publishes national clinical and public health guidelines for the management of all suspected measles cases at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-measles-guidelines

High quality surveillance is a fundamental component of the UK measles and rubella elimination strategy, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy

Measles is a notifiable disease and healthcare professionals are legally required to report all suspected cases to their local Health Protection Team.