Health officials have declared a “national measles incident” after a five-fold rise in cases over the past year.
Experts said outbreaks were largely affecting young adults who missed out on the MMR vaccine when they were younger.
Uptake fell heavily following the publication of research in 1998, which was later discredited, linking the jab to autism.
Latest figures from Public Health England (PHE) show 643 cases of measles in England in the first five and a half months of this year – compared with 274 cases in 2017.