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Pharmacies will be used to signpost families to vaccinations amid a measles outbreak in north London, the London Assembly Health Committee has heard.
Speaking at a hearing on the measles outbreak in Enfield, north London, held at City Hall in London on 9 March 2026, Dudu Sher-Arami, director of public health at Enfield Council, said the borough was looking to use “pharmacies, dentists, the registry office” to inform families about the importance of the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccination.
Arami said she had sent a letter to all residents with pupils at Enfield schools, which informed them of the outbreak.
The letter also advised residents on the science and symptoms, adding that “vaccination was the most effective way of preventing measles and informing them about how to be vaccinated if they were missing those vaccinations”.
“We’ve done quite a significant amount of communication through various channels, such as our family hubs, our leisure centres, our voluntary sector organisations, our faith forum, where we have a wide representation of many different faith communities that there are in the borough [as well as] pharmacies, dentists, the registry office,” she said.
“We’re looking at all of the various points at which families operate with within the borough, and we’re looking to communicate with them through that.”
According to data published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on 5 March 2026, there were 71 cases of measles in Enfield between 1 January and 23 February 2026, with 195 cases across England since the beginning of the year.
There were 36 cases in Birmingham and 13 cases in Haringey, north London, the data showed.
Between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025, the UKHSA recorded 959 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England. Of these, more than half (51%, n=493) were in London, while 14% (n=134) were in north west England.
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 number of cases for more than a decade.
In February 2026, the government launched the ‘Stay strong, get vaccinated’ campaign — developed with support from NHS England and the UKHSA — which 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.
In March 2026, The Pharmaceutical Journal revealed that a pilot scheme to provide MMR vaccinations via community pharmacies in Manchester had vaccinated more than 300 hard-to-reach people.
