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A new government-led childhood vaccination campaign offers parents “easy access to trusted information”.
Launched on 16 February 2026, the ‘Stay Strong, Get Vaccinated’ campaign, developed with support from NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), is aimed at parents of children aged between 0 and 5 years. It includes accessible information about the MMRV vaccine which offers protection against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
MMRV replaced the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine across Great Britain from January 2026.
The UKHSA has reported that there have been 96 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England since 1 January 2026. Of these, 64% (n=61) were in London, and 26% (n=25) were in the West Midlands.
In January 2026, the highest number of London cases were in the borough of Enfield, with 34 cases, while there were 21 cases in Birmingham, West Midlands.
Alev Cazimoglu, cabinet member for health and social care for Enfield Council, said: “The current outbreak has mainly affected children and some have required additional care with a short stay in hospital.”
A statement on the website of the Ordnance Unity Centre for Health, a GP surgery in Enfield, said: “Infections have been confirmed across at least seven schools in Enfield and Haringey and it is spreading. During this recent outbreak, one in five children have been hospitalised due to measles and all of them had not been fully immunised.”
The ‘Stay Strong, Get Vaccinated’ childhood vaccination campaign includes a television and on-demand video advert, social media content, digital display advertising and partnerships with online parenting forums.
Gayatri Amirthalingam, deputy director of immunisation at the UKHSA, said: “A decade of falling vaccination rates means that many children remain unprotected from serious but preventable diseases. Measles, whooping cough and other diseases spread quickly in unvaccinated children and can have devastating consequences.
“It’s important that parents can easily get clear, trusted information and this campaign reminds parents of the overwhelming benefits of vaccines and to check their children are up to date – it’s never too late to catch-up for vaccines such as MMRV.”
Between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025, the UKHSA recorded 959 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England. Of these, 51% (n=493) were in London and 14% (n=134) were in the North West.
On 1 August 2025, the UKHSA reported that more than 1 in 10 eligible children aged under five years in England had not had the MMR vaccine or were only partially vaccinated.
In January 2026, the World Health Organization announced that the UK had lost its measles elimination status, after over 2,900 cases of measles were confirmed in England in 2024, the highest level for more than a decade.
