As you may be aware, there is currently an outbreak of measles in Wales. We are working in partnership with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board to enable children who have missed their scheduled appointments for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines to access these in school.  Measles can be a serious illness for children and is easily passed between people who are not vaccinated. Families should be aware that if a child is not vaccinated and catches measles, not only could they become very unwell, but they would need to isolate at home for a period of time and therefore miss school. Any close contacts of a child who has measles who is not vaccinated themselves may also need to isolate at home because they may then also develop symptoms, potentially for up to 21 days due to the incubation period of measles. This isolation period would clearly cause significant disruption to families and communities. 

We would encourage families to take up the opportunity of their child getting their MMR vaccination if they are offered it by the Health Board. Parents will be contacted with an opportunity for their child to receive the vaccine at school if they have missed it when it was scheduled (MMR is given at age 12-13 months and a booster at 3 years, but it is never too late to catch up). 

Other options for getting the MMR vaccine, including for adults, are to visit your GP practice, or drop in to a Mass Vaccination Centre (no appointment needed) at Barry or Rookwood Hospitals which are open 7 days a week from 9am-6pm. If you want to check if your child is up to date with vaccinations, you can call the Health Board's Child Health Team on 029 2183 6926.

Please note that if your child is invited and you would like them to have the MMR vaccine which does not contain gelatine, this will be an option you can choose. For more information about the MMR vaccine please go to Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) - Public Health Wales (nhs.wales)