Thanks in part to the kooks on both the right and the left who are promoting anti-vaccination insanity (people like Jenny McCarthy and publications like World Net Daily), diseases long thought eradicated are making a big comeback in London.

London is suffering a startling rise in diseases associated with Victorian times, official figures reveal today.�

Rare infectious illnesses including typhoid, whooping cough and scarlet fever have soared by 166 per cent in the past two years, with the number of cases of mumps - a disease is easily prevented with vaccine - rising from 125 in 2007 to 393 last year - an increase of 214 per cent.

Justine Greening, the shadow minister for London, said infection rates in the capital are markedly higher than the national averages.

The rise could be a result of parents refusing the MMR jab after now-debunked claims in 2001 that it might be linked to autism.