Measles notifications and deaths in England and Wales, 1940-2008

Year	Notifications	Total Deaths
1940	409,521	857
1941	409,715	1,145
1942	286,341	458
1943	376,104	773
1944	158,479	243
1945	446,796	729
1946	160,402	204
1947	393,787	644
1948	399,606	327
1949	385,935	307
1950	367,725	221
1951	616,182	317
1952	389,502	141
1953	545,050	242
1954	146,995	45
1955	693,803	174
1956	160,556	28
1957	633,678	94
1958	259,308	49
1959	539,524	98
1960	159,364	31
1961	763,531	152
1962	184,895	39
1963	601,255	127
1964	306,801	73
1965	502,209	115
1966	343,642	80
1967	460,407	99
1968	236,154	51
1969	142,111	36
1970	307,408	42
1971	135,241	28
1972	145,916	29
1973	152,578	33
1974	109,636	20
1975	143,072	16
1976	55,502	14
1977	173,361	23
1978	124,067	20
1979	77,363	17
1980	139,487	26
1981	52,979	15
1982	94,195	13
1983	103,700	16
1984	62,079	10
1985	97,408	11
1986	82,054	10
1987	42,158	6
1988	86,001	16
1989	26,222	3
1990	13,302	1
1991	9,680	1
1992	10,268	2
1993	9,612	4
1994	16,375	0
1995	7,447	1
1996	5,614	0
1997	3,962	3
1998	3,728	3
1999	2,438	3
2000	2,378	1
2001	2,250	1
2002	3,232	1*
2003	2,488	0
2004	2,356	1
2005	2,089	0
2006	3,705	1
2007	3,670	1
2008**	5,088	2

* Known not to be measles infection
**Provisional data

Source: Office for National Statistics

In 2006 there was one measles death in a 13 years old male who had an underlying lung condition and was taking immunosuppressive drugs. Another death in 2008 was also due to acute measles in unvaccinated child with congenital immunodeficiency whose condition did not require treatment with immunoglobulin. Prior to 2006, the last death from acute measles was in 1992.

All other measles deaths, since 1992, shown above are in older individuals and were caused by the late effects of measles. These infections were acquired during the 1980s or earlier, when epidemics of measles occurred.

Graph: Measles notifications and deaths in England and Wales, 1940-2008

Last reviewed: 20 January 2010