GPs are being urged to be vigilant for measles, particularly in people returning from European hotspots such as Italy, France, Greece, Romania and Russia. There have been nearly 600 recorded cases of measles in England alone this year — more than throughout 2017 — and most were caught abroad, but what are the risks? And how can travellers, adults and children, protect themselves?
Risk, or rather perception of risk, is an odd thing when it comes to illnesses such as measles (and mumps and rubella/German measles). The public tend to worry too much about rare but dangerous infections and too little about common “childhood” diseases that only occasionally maim or kill. Yet, overall, the milder diseases tend to exact the biggest toll.
Most people, for
