Laboratory confirmed cases of measles, rubella and mumps in England: April to June 2025
Updated 25 September 2025
Applies to England
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Introduction
Measles, mumps and rubella are notifiable diseases; healthcare professionals are legally required to inform their local health protection team (HPT) of any suspected case. National enhanced surveillance including oral fluid (OF) testing of all suspected cases is provided through the Virus Reference Department (VRD) at Colindale to support and monitor progress towards World Health Organization (WHO) measles and rubella elimination targets (1).
Two WHO indicators are of prime importance for measuring the performance of national measles and rubella surveillance systems. These are:
- The rate of laboratory investigations (at least 80% of suspected cases)
- The annual rate of discarded cases (at least 2 per 100,000 population)
In order to achieve these targets, the focus of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is to ensure that all suspected cases are appropriately tested. Oral fluid and serology samples are the only two samples considered adequate by WHO for confirming or discarding a suspected measles or rubella case. Recent infection is confirmed by measuring the presence of IgM/IgG antibodies or detecting viral RNA (by PCR) in these samples.
Samples that have been confirmed positive for measles or rubella in a proficient laboratory (this includes local laboratories as well as the National Reference Laboratory) are included in this report. Samples that are referred to, or tested at, the National Reference Laboratory are further sequenced and entered on the WHO global Measles Nucleotide Surveillance (MeaNS) or the Rubella Nucleotide Surveillance (RubeNS) system, respectively, which are hosted at the National Reference Laboratory. Genotyping and further characterisation of measles and rubella is used to support investigation of transmission pathways and sources of infection.
Data presented here are for the second quarter of 2025 (April to June). The analyses are executed using the onset date of a rash or more broadly, symptoms, and regional breakdown figures relate to the Government Office Regions. Hospitalisation statistics have been derived from the Secondary Users Service (SUS) and Emergency Care Data Sets (ECDS). Travel data has been obtained from the Case Management Information System (CIMS).
Historical annual and quarterly measles, mumps and rubella epidemiological data are available from 2013 onwards, as follows:
The results from all samples tested at Colindale are reported to the MOLIS laboratory information system. The results are then reported back to the respective general practitioner (GP) and local HPT.
Overview
Table 1. Total suspected cases of measles, mumps and rubella reported to HPTs with breakdown of:
a) number of suspected cases
b) proportion tested by Oral Fluid (OF)
c) other samples referred onto the Virus Reference Department (VRD) Colindale from local NHS hospital and private laboratories
d) cases confirmed at the VRD
e) cases confirmed at regional, local NHS hospital and private laboratories only
f) discard rate (measles and rubella only): weeks 14 to 27 of 2025
| Notified as | Total suspected cases* | Number (%) tested by OF** | Other samples received by VRD | Number of samples IgM positive or viral detection in VRD | Number locally confirmed | Discard rate based on negative tests per 100,000 population (all samples)*** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measles | 1,219 | 472 (38.7) | 206 | 270 | 78 | 1.51 |
| Mumps | 969 | 536 (55.3) | 41 | 17 | 17 | 1.62 |
| Rubella | 49 | 24 (49) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.08 |
*This represents all cases reported to HPTs in England; that is: possible, probable, confirmed and discarded cases on CIMS.
**The target set by WHO is 80% for measles and rubella only.
***The WHO has set a target for the annual discard rate of 2 cases per 100,000 population, which translates to a quarterly target of 0.5 per 100,000. It should be noted that we have proportionally adjusted the annual target, to ensure there is consistent testing across each quarter. This ensures we regularly achieve the target, rather than batch testing in one quarter to achieve the annual discard rate. The discard rate is based only on VRD testing only because local negative tests are not routinely reported to UKHSA. Therefore, this is likely to be an underestimation of the true discard rate.
Measles
In the period between April and June 2025, there were 364 laboratory confirmed cases of measles reported in England, an increase of 138 compared to the previous quarter (n=226) (2) (Figure 1).
The cases in this quarter were mainly linked to outbreaks in London (n=139), the North West (n=52) and East of England (n=32). The latest data can be found in the monthly measles epidemiology report (3).
Of the 364 cases reported this quarter, 26 cases were classified as imported and 7 as import related. The majority, 73.4%, of cases (267 out of 364), were in children aged 10 years or younger. Eight (2.2%) of the cases were previously vaccinated with 1 dose of the MMR vaccine and 5 (1.4%) with at least 2 doses.
One laboratory confirmed case was reported in Northern Ireland, 4 in Scotland and 0 in Wales in the second quarter of 2025.
Using NHS number, 360 individuals linked to the secondary care datasets in the period 5 days before to 10 days after their onset of measles symptoms. Of these 360, 32.5% of cases attended A&E only with no admission (117 out of 360); 34.7% of cases had a primary measles-related reason for admission (125 out of 360).
For the most recent measles epidemiology, see: ‘Confirmed cases of measles in England by month, age, region and upper-tier local authority: 2025’
Figure 1. Laboratory confirmed cases of measles by month of onset of rash or symptoms reported, London and England: January 2012 to June 2025
Across the WHO European Region there has been an increase in measles infections since 2022 (4). In 2024, there were 127,350 cases reported, double that reported in 2023 (n=61,070) and the highest since 1977 (5, 6). Measles in this region accounted for one third of all cases globally. This increasing trend follows a reduction in vaccination coverage since the COVID-19 pandemic (5). Romania (n=30,692), Kazakhstan (n=28,147) and the Russian Federation (n=22,076) contributed the most measles cases in 2024 (7). Between January and June 2025, most cases in the WHO European region have been reported in Kyrgyzstan (n=8,125), Russia (n=4,195) and Romania (n=4,058) (7). Importations remain a threat to measles resurgence in under-vaccinated communities (6). In this quarter, measles was imported from 14 different countries into England.
This quarter an oral fluid sample was returned for 472 (38.7%) of all suspected measles cases reported in England (n=1,219). Many of these suspected cases will also have samples tested at local and regional laboratories. This quarter an additional 72 cases were confirmed through local testing, increasing the proportion of suspected cases that were tested to 44.6% (544 out of 1,219).
Mumps
In England, there were 34 laboratory confirmed mumps infections in the period April to June, a reduction of 12.8% since the last quarter (n=39) (1).
Seven (21%) of the 34 cases this quarter were in children below the age of 15 years; 73.5% (25 out of 34) of all cases had no vaccine recorded and 26.5% (9 out of 34) had at least one or more doses of vaccine recorded.
Figure 2. Laboratory confirmed cases of mumps by year and quarter, England: January 2012 to June 2025
Rubella
There were 0 laboratory confirmed cases of rubella reported in this quarter.
References
1. Public Health England (2019). UK Measles and rubella elimination strategy 2019
2. UKHSA (2025). ‘Laboratory confirmed cases of measles, rubella and mumps in England: October to December 2024’. Health Protection Report volume 19 number 5
3. UKHSA (2025). ‘Confirmed cases of measles in England by month, age, region and upper tier local authority: 2025’
4. Muscat M, Ben Mamou M, Reynen-de Kat C, Jankovic D, Hagan J, Singh S, Datta SS (2024). ‘Progress and challenges in measles and rubella elimination in the WHO European Region’. Vaccines: volume 12, number 6, page 696
5. WHO Europe (March 2025). ‘European Region reports highest number of measles cases in more than 25 years’ (media release)
6. UNICEF (May 2024). Measles cases across Europe continue to surge, putting millions of children at risk
7. WHO (May 2024). Measles/Rubella (MR) Dashboard. Summary table: cases by year and final classification