[ad_1]
LONDON (AP) – The British government is planning to convene a summit of social media companies to discuss what they can do to combat online misinformation about vaccines following an outbreak of measles cases.
Although plans for such a rally are still under development, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday expressed concern over the rising incidence of measles. He said Britain had an excellent record in the fight against the disease, but that things were suddenly "in the wrong direction", with 230 new cases of measles in the first months of this year.
He said authorities should handle misleading online information about vaccinations.
"I'm afraid people are listening to this superstitious gibberish on the Internet, all this anti-vax stuff and think the MMR vaccine is a bad idea," he said during a visit to a southwestern hospital of England. "It's wrong."
Measles is highly contagious and health officials claim that at least 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated to prevent outbreaks. In May, Public Health England estimated that about 87% of five-year-olds had received both doses.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of measles cases reported worldwide in the first six months of 2019 was higher than that of the year 2006, "with straining epidemics health systems and leading to illness, disability and death. " its highest number of measles cases in 25 years.
Some British health officials welcomed Johnson's proposal, but said the country's health service was already struggling to meet existing demands. Helen Bedford, a professor at the Institute of Child Health at University College London, noted that many clinics of doctors were closing down and the number of health workers in the country had dropped significantly recently.
"It's a pressurized system," she said in a statement. "We must allocate resources to a growing number of licensed practical nurses, a skilled workforce who, day after day, immunize children and adults to protect them against serious diseases."
Johnson presented plans to improve UK immunization rates, calling on health officials to redouble their efforts to ensure that 95% of residents receive both doses of the MMR vaccine. The Ministry of Health will present a strategy to tackle the problem this fall and should consider using technology to identify people who may have missed a vaccination and make appointments easier.
[ad_2]
Source link