As the couple would come to learn, Chloe wasn’t the only neighborhood dog to suddenly fall ill.

There were 17 outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis linked to farms in England and Wales in 2024 and an outbreak in south Wales earlier this year has seen dozens of people fall ill.

"The biggest challenge for us is when people, especially children, fall ill," she says.

Just as children in preschool fall ill constantly with common diseases they’re encountering for the first time, unvaccinated children who contract measles are at higher risk in the ensuing years for common early childhood sicknesses such as respiratory infections, earaches and viruses that cause diarrhea, said Shelly Bolotin, a scientist at Public Health Ontario in Canada and director of the Center for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto.

The government says the changes will mean about 1.3 million people on low wages who fall ill will receive either 80% of their average weekly earnings or the current rate of statutory sick pay which is £118.75 per week – whichever is lowest.