The recent outbreak of measles in the UK has led to a surge of interest in Irishhealth.com's Child Immunisation Tracker, with hundreds of parents registering with the service and downloading the app in recent days.

Almost 700 people in Swansea in Wales have now caught the potentially dangerous disease, with health officials working around the clock to get as many people immunised as possible.

Speaking to Irishhealth.com recently, Maurice Kelly of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), warned that ‘measles outbreaks in any country to which there is substantial travel back and forth between Ireland is a concern'.

Irishhealth.com's Child Immunisation Tracker helps parents keep track of their children's vaccination history, while also sending them timely reminders of when a further vaccination is due. It also offers comprehensive information on vaccines to parents.

According to Irishhealth.com publisher, John Gibbons, a 350% increase in downloads of the tracker app and in parents registering with the site has been recorded in recent weeks.

"We have had over 550 additional children registered with our Child Immunisation Tracker service since the start of April, as worry about the dangers of a measles outbreak spreading to Ireland have grown," Mr Gibbons explained.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a viral infection. It causes cold-like symptoms and a rash, but can also lead to more serious complications, such as breathing difficulties, pneumonia and acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).

Children can be immunised against the disease via the MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccine, however since the late 1990s', uptake of this vaccine has not been at optimum levels.

Much of the reason for this has been blamed on a 1998 study linking the measles vaccine to autism. The small study by Dr Andrew Wakefield was published in the highly respected medical journal, The Lancet.

Since then, many parents worldwide, Including in Ireland and the UK, have chosen not to have their children vaccinated with the triple vaccine. This is despite the fact that a number of studies since 1998 have found no such link with autism. Furthermore in early 2004, the editor of The Lancet, Dr Richard Horton, said that Dr Wakefield's study should never have been published as it was ‘flawed'.

In 2010, Dr Wakefield was struck off the medical register in the UK after the UK General Medical Council found him guilty of serious professional misconduct over the way in which he carried out the research.

Dr Wakefield was accused of carrying out, as part of his research, invasive tests on vulnerable children which were against their best interests. The GMC said he did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.

The MMR vaccine is given twice - at 12 months of age and again at four-to-five years. The latest figures from the HPSC show that uptake in Ireland for the first vaccine is around 92%, while uptake at four-to five years of age is around 84%. In the early-to-mid noughties, uptake rates fell as low as 80% here.

Mr Kelly of the HPSC reminded parents that the vaccination is provided free of charge to all children.

"Children who have missed vaccines can avail of the vaccine from their GP or the HSE depending on the age of the child," he said.

To avail of our Child Immunisation Tracker service, click here