In its statement today, WHO Europe drew attention to the rapid increase in measles cases and emphasized the need to take urgent measures. In the WHO Europe statement, “There is an alarming increase in measles cases in the WHO European Region. Between January and October 2023, more than 30 thousand cases of measles were reported in 40 of the region’s 53 member states. “This represents a more than 30-fold increase compared to the 941 cases reported in all of 2022,” he said.
“The ONLY WAY TO PROTECT IS VACCINE”
WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr. Hans Kluge stated that there were nearly 21 thousand hospitalizations and 5 deaths due to measles and said, “The only way to protect children from this potentially dangerous disease is vaccination. Urgent vaccination studies are needed to stop transmission and prevent further spread. Measles, which may jeopardize progress towards eliminating measles.” “It is vital that all countries are prepared to quickly detect outbreaks and respond in a timely manner,” he said.
5 FATAL CASES FROM MEASLES WERE REPORTED
Emphasizing that in 2023 cases, measles affects all age groups and age groups vary by country, WHO Europe said: “Overall, two out of 5 cases were among children aged 1 to 4 years, and one out of 5 cases was among adults aged 20 and over. “From the beginning of the year (2023) to October, 20,918 hospitalized cases were reported and 5 measles-related deaths were reported by 2 countries,” it said. It was also stated that vaccination against measles decreased in the region between 2020-2022 and that this was caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.
OUTBREAK WARNING
Emphasizing that more than 1.8 million babies in total in the WHO European Region missed the measles vaccine between 2020-2022, WHO said, “Cases have been reported in many countries where measles has been declared eliminated as an endemic disease. “Countries that have succeeded in eliminating measles will still face the risk of large and devastating epidemics following the importation of measles virus from other countries if they do not maintain very high rates of routine childhood vaccination (at least 95%) in all communities,” he said. (DHA)