Press release: Sense and Public Health Wales warn of potential dangers of a rubella outbreak

17 May 2013

National deafblind charity Sense and Public Health Wales have today (15 May) warned of the potential dangers of a rubella outbreak in Wales.

With around 38,000 unvaccinated young people in Wales, Sense has welcomed efforts to increase MMR vaccination in children and teenagers following the measles outbreak in the Swansea area. However, it is warning that further action is needed now to prevent an outbreak of rubella. If contracted by a woman who is pregnant, rubella causes babies to be born with combined sight and hearing loss, along with life-threatening heart conditions and a long list of other health issues.

Joff McGill, Lead on Rubella and Immunisation at Sense, said:

"We can’t sit around and wait for rubella outbreaks to follow measles – now is the time to catch up and stay ahead of rubella. We must act now to protect pregnant women and their unborn babies. Women who are unsure of their vaccination history and are thinking about becoming pregnant should contact their GP for advice.

"The large group of 38,000 unvaccinated young people in Wales, along with evidence of increasing susceptibility to rubella in younger women and in women from ethnic minorities, means immunisation can no longer be a childhood issue. Anyone that has not been vaccinated has the potential to pass rubella on to pregnant women. The single measles vaccination does not protect against rubella and a programme of single vaccines would mean more people, unprotected for longer. MMR is the only effective way to prevent the spread of the disease and the associated risks."

Dr Marion Lyons, Director of Health Protection for Public Health Wales, said:

"We have been warning for some weeks now of the risk of measles to those not vaccinated with two doses of MMR, but it should be remembered that the vaccine also protects against mumps and rubella.

"At present we have not seen cases of rubella in Wales for several years, but the disease is not eradicated and there is every possibility of rubella outbreaks in the future.

"It would be a huge shame to see this disease re-emerging in Wales and affecting pregnant women and their babies."

Sense and Public Health Wales recommend two doses of the MMR vaccine to protect women and their unborn children against measles, mumps and rubella.

You can read more about this matter on the BBC News website.

Notes to editors

For media enquiries contact the Sense press office on 0845 127 0060 or Public Health Wales on 029 2034 8755 (24 hours)

About Sense

Sense is a national charity that has supported and campaigned for children and adults who are deafblind for over 50 years.  There are currently around 250,000 deafblind people in the UK.

Sense provides specialist information, advice and services to deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. We run services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and employ 2,000 people most of whom work in services directly with deafblind people. Our patron is HRH The Princess Royal. 

Deafblindness is a combination of both sight and hearing difficulties. Some of these people are completely deaf and blind, but others have some remaining use of one or both senses.

Causes of deafblindness include premature birth and exposure to rubella during pregnancy, which can cause babies to be born deafblind. Sense therefore supports MMR which has proven to be the most effective vaccination programme against rubella. Some genetic conditions such as Usher syndrome can also result in deafblindness. People can also become deafblind at any time through illness, accident or in older age.

About Public Health Wales

Public Health Wales is an NHS organisation providing professionally independent public health advice and services to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of the population of Wales.

Public Health Wales has four statutory functions:

  1. To provide and manage a range of public health, health protection, healthcare improvement, health advisory, child protection and microbiological laboratory services and services relating to the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases
  2. To develop and maintain arrangements for making information about matters related to the protection and improvement of health in Wales available to the public; to undertake and commission research into such matters and to contribute to the provision and development of training in such matters
  3.  To undertake the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of information about the health of the people of Wales in particular including cancer incidence, mortality and survival; and prevalence of congenital anomalies
  4. To provide, manage, monitor, evaluate and conduct research into screening of health conditions and screening of health related matters

More information on Public Health Wales is available at www.publichealthwales.org