BERLIN, April 6 (UPI) -- German doctors are urging parents to immediately vaccinate their children with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to control a measles epidemic.
More than 420 children and teenagers have contracted measles, a highly contagious illness, during the past few weeks, The Times of London reported Thursday. The outbreak has forced the closing of several schools in the industrial Ruhr region.
Physicians are urging children be vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, despite fears of MMR side effects.
Official statistics suggest approximately 93 percent of German infants receive their first MMR shot that's usually given before two years of age. However, only about 66 percent receive the second required inoculation, The Times said.
Parental resistance to the MMR vaccine has been increasing in Germany, the newspaper reported, noting some parents have held "measles parties," in which youngsters are taken to play with a sick child so they can catch the disease and build a natural immunity.
Scientists are not sure how the current German outbreak started, but some suggest the illness might have been imported by migrant workers from Ukraine -- where 2,130 cases of measles were reported in January.
