In brief

Measles increases in England and Wales: There were 334 laboratory confirmed cases of measles up to the end of April 2011, compared with 33 over the same period last year and 337 in the whole of 2010. Mary Ramsay, head of the immunisation department at the Health Protection Agency, said, “We again are reminding parents and young adults of the importance of immunisation.” Other European countries have also seen increases in recent months (BMJ 2011;342:d3161).

Most people who died from flu had not been vaccinated: A total of 602 people in the UK were reported to the Health Protection Agency as having …