The number of infectious diseases in Ireland, not including Covid-19, has risen year-on-year.

And one expert is blaming the rise on anti-vaccination campaigns.

New figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show the biggest increase has been in cases of mumps. These rose by 1,628 cases, to a total of 2,443 in the first 14 weeks of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.

Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus infection (a common respiratory virus) and the norovirus, or winter vomiting bug, also showed increases of 541, 326 and 190 respectively.

The flu was the most frequently recorded infectious disease, affecting 7,697 people in the first 14 weeks of this year. Dr Andrew Jordan, a GP in the Aylesbury Clinic in Tallaght, said anti-vaccination campaigns had become a major problem.

‘Antivax campaigns are just fake news, but they get traction on social media, and rumours spread about links to ADHD and autism,’ he said.

‘The problem is that a lot of people listen to these, and not to normal media. It’s like a parallel universe, and people don’t really grasp the serious effect that this can have on infection rates.’

He said an ongoing crisis in GP care was also to blame, with some medical card holders having no surgery in their local area, and older people were also often missing out on the flu vaccine.