MMR vaccine
Some sources linked the outbreak with the MMR vaccine controversy and a campaign in the "South Wales Evening Post" in the 1990s against the MMR vaccine, as the majority of those who became infected were not immunised as infants during the MMR scare. Uptake of the MMR vaccine fell from 94% of two-year-olds in Wales in 1995 to 78% by 2003. In the Swansea area the uptake fell to 67.5%. The "South Wales Evening Post" was also criticised for appearing to exaggerate the number of confirmed measles cases that occurred during the epidemic.