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Measles epidemic is feared as nursery children are hospitalised

Outbreaks of measles among children in England and Wales have raised fears that the UK may be facing an epidemic.

Four children from a nursery in south-west Wales have been treated in hospital for the disease and a further 123 cases have been reported.

In England, 53 people in the north-east have caught measles since January and over 100 more cases are under investigation.

The number of cases is already more than four times the total in Wales last year and far exceeds the total number last year in the north-east, when only 17 cases were reported.

The four nursery children, who are all aged under two and attend Hapus Dyrfa, a 58-place nursery in Burry Port, were too young to have received both the MMR jabs that are routinely given at the ages of one and before children start school. The four have now been released from hospital and were due back at nursery on Monday (25 May).

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