Hertfordshire had highest measles rate in entire East of England region

A meeting of Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Commissioning Board (ICB) met on 29 August, where they analysed the latest data of infection outbreaks in the county.

The report stated: “Data demonstrates that Hertfordshire has highest number of laboratory confirmed cases within the East of England – a total of 66 cases between January 1 and 16 September. Essex reported 18 cases.

“In the four weeks after 26 August, there have been six laboratory confirmed measles cases in the East of England. Nationally, there is a downward trend in number of cases reported since mid-July. To date, no healthcare outbreaks have been reported in Hertfordshire and West Essex.”

In order to mitigate the risk of measles, response meetings have been implemented and the health body is seeking compliance across its network to ensure all appropriate respirators pass fit testing.

The measles risk level on ICB risk register has been recently reduced due to mitigations in place, while partners have developed measles pathways and shared information from the cases that have been reported. Multi-agency meetings are also said to be taking place to support learning where identified.

The report added: “In response to the rise in measles notifications and infections in England, the UKHSA & NHSE Strategic Health Resilience Group requested an East of England system tabletop exercise to be organised in March 2024. Regional EPRR Leads from NHSE and UKHSA developed the exercise scenario with local system partners in ICBs and local authority.

“The tabletop simulation exercise, Exercise Euclid, was held on 26 May to rehearse the health protection response to a measles outbreak in the East of England. Exercise Euclid identified 6 examples of good practice. There were several enablers to a successful response. Clear understanding of roles and responsibilities was achieved through agreed health protection MOUs.

“The exercise highlighted areas for improvement, which have been summarised into 26 lessons which covered sharing situational awareness; incident governance; assurance; communications; immunisation and screening; outbreak Management; debriefing and concurrent incidents. The full debrief document can be found in appendix D. ICBs were asked to review the lessons learned and recommended actions and liaise with relevant local structures.”