Thousands of children are at risk of developing measles because not enough of them are being immunised.

New figures show take up rates for the measles mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine across Sussex are still not high enough to prevent an outbreak.

The World Health Organisation recommends that 95% of a population need to be immunised to offer the best level of protection.

However the rates of children getting their first dose of the MMR vaccine by their second birthday in 2008/9 range from 91% across East Sussex and 90% in West Sussex to as low as 85% in Brighton and Hove.

The figure drops even lower for those children to have received two doses of the vaccine by their fifth birthday with Brighton having the smallest rate at 69%.

However this was a sharp rise on the year before when the city had a percentage of 62%.

East Sussex Downs and Weald and West Sussex have an 82% rate while 78% of children in Hastings and Rother are protected.

The latest figures were published by the NHS Information Centre with the national average standing at 85% for the first jab and 78% for both.

Health bosses say the numbers have improved on the year before and the message is starting to get through.

Brighton and Hove has experienced an outbreak of measles this year with more than 60 confirmed cases since January, ten times the number for the whole of 2008.

City director of public health Tom Scanlon believes the actual number is probably more than 100 because not every case was tested.

The city was targeted by a national MMR roadshow last month after being designated a measles hotspot by the Department of Health.

Dr Scanlon said: “We have seen a steady increase in childhood immunisation rates over the past year.

“More than 90 babies in every hundred are receiving their baby jabs, for example, and we have seen a rise in the number of children having their MMR jab.

“Unfortunately it is still not enough as the measles outbreak earlier this year demonstrated.

“We urge parents to immunise their child against measles, mumps and rubella which can cause serious health problems.

“We review the position regularly and are always looking for new opportunities to inform parents and encourage them to give their children the best protection they can.”

About one in 15 children who catch measles will develop more serious complications like deafness, meningitis or brain damage.

About one in 5,000 who contract the virus die.

The year before the MMR vaccine was introduced, 86,000 children caught measles and 16 died.

Take up rates for MMR dropped sharply in the late 1990s after a now discredited link between the vaccine and autism was published in The Lancet.