Research and analysis

National Measles Standard Incident - measles epidemiology (from October 2023)

Updated 9 May 2024

Applies to England

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Update on England measles epidemiology

Since 1 October 2023, there have been 1,374 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported (Figure 1, 2) in England, 80 new cases since the last published report on 2 May 2024.  The following number of cases have been reported:

  • 17 in October
  • 41 in November
  • 154 in December
  • 276 in January
  • 270 in February
  • 316 in March
  • 294 in April
  • 6 so far in May

42% (579 of 1,374) of these cases have been in the West Midlands, 28% (389 of 1374) in London, and 10% (130 of 1,374) in the East Midlands. The majority (878 of 1,374, 63.9%) of these cases are in children under the age of 10 years and 29.0% (398 of 1,374) in young people and adults over the age of 15 years (Table 1).

In the past 4 weeks (since 8 April 2024), there have been 215 newly confirmed cases.​ The highest number of cases were reported from London (93 of 215, 43.3%), West Midlands (35 of 215, 16.3%), and North East (25 of 215, 11.6%) regions. During this period, all regions have had confirmed cases.

The rapid increase in cases seen in late 2023 was initially driven by a large outbreak in Birmingham but activity there has now stabilised and in more recent weeks we have seen a rise in cases in London and smaller clusters ongoing in other regions.

Data included in this report are provisional and subject to change as:

  • more suspected cases undergo confirmatory testing
  • some locally tested cases are discarded after obtaining further epidemiological information or undergoing confirmatory testing at the reference laboratory

Figure 1. Laboratory confirmed cases of measles by month of onset of rash or symptoms reported, London and England: 1 May 2012 to 6 May 2024 [note 1 and 2]

Figure 2. Figure 2. Laboratory confirmed cases of measles by week of onset of rash or symptoms reported, London, West Midlands and England: 1 October 2023 to 6 May 2024 [note 1 and 2]

[note 1] Cases confirmed through either local or reference laboratory testing.

[note 2] Data are provisional and subject to change as:

  • more suspected cases undergo confirmatory testing
  • some locally tested cases are discarded after confirmatory testing at the reference laboratory and are therefore depicted with dotted lines

The data reporting lag has greatest impact on the most recent 4 weeks which are therefore represented by dotted lines.

Table 1. Laboratory confirmed cases of measles by age group and region in England: 1 October 2023 to 6 May 2024 [note 3]

Age Group (years) East Midlands East of England London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire and The Humber Total
<1 7 8 48 7 7 5 3 83 6 174
1-4 33 16 124 11 18 6 4 156 23 391
5-10 48 15 83 15 6 2 3 127 14 313
11-14 16 0 13 5 5 1 0 55 3 98
15-19 10 2 24 0 5 1 3 46 0 91
20-24 6 0 24 0 1 1 1 22 7 62
25-29 3 2 18 2 5 3 3 27 5 68
30-34 1 1 18 3 5 4 2 24 4 62
35+ 6 5 38 5 12 2 0 40 7 115
Total 130 49 390 48 64 25 19 580 69 1,374

[note 3] Data are provisional and subject to change as:

  • more suspected cases undergo confirmatory testing
  • some locally tested cases are discarded after obtaining further epidemiological information or undergoing confirmatory testing at the reference laboratory
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