Adult patients to be asked about measles history and offered jab if unsure of previous vaccination or infection

GPs are also expected to proactively contact patients with children aged ­between two and 17 years old to offer them a measles vaccine as part of a new “catch-up” campaign, as reported cases of the infection rise.

The HSE campaign aims to offer the vaccine to over 300,000 people of different ages in the coming weeks and months.

So far this year there have been five reported cases of measles and more are expected following the mixing of crowds over the St Patrick's Festival weekend.

Chief Medical Officer discusses the importance of the MMR vaccine in preventing measles

It emerged on Friday that passengers on a Ryanair flight from Paphos, Cyprus to Dublin on Thursday, March 7, were written to late last week to alert them that a person on board had measles.

Passengers who were not vaccinated or had no measles infection in the past – including pregnant women, the immunocompromised and children under six months – are of concern.

The advice to GPs on the catch-up roll-out is to give children one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine if the practice does not have a record of having received this already.

A second dose of the vaccine can be offered at least four weeks later for all those older than junior infants age, if they have not received two doses of MMR vaccine in total.

GPs have been advised they can also vaccinate other cohorts of patients, such as those aged 18 and older who are not fully vaccinated, if they are attending them for another medical reason.

Patients should not be vaccinated ahead of schedule – for example, if a child has had their MMR at 12 months they do not need a further MMR booster until they are in junior infants .This is given in school normally but is administered by GPs in some counties such as Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.

The guidelines say that children may receive an MMR vaccine before the age of one year, if travelling to an area where there is an active measles outbreak.

Doses of MMR given before the age of one year should be discounted and MMR should be offered again after the age of one year.

The doctors have been told there is no requirement to check vaccine status where vaccine records are not available in your GP practice and it is not known by patient or GP team.

Where the patient or parent or guardian is unsure of the vaccination status, they should be advised to receive an MMR catch-up vaccination.

The HSE immunisation experts said the advice is that if an individual has already had two doses of MMR, a third dose will likely not cause any increase in side-effects.