Measles cases up 8% on pre-pandemic levels

Measles cases up 8% on pre-pandemic levels Keystone-SDA

Cases of measles rose by 8% last year, to 11 million, compared with the situation before the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago. On the other hand, deaths fell by 11%, to 95,000, over the same period, the WHO said in Geneva on Friday.

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In almost 25 years, some 58 million victims have been prevented thanks to vaccination, according to the institution’s estimates. The disease has moved from poor countries to middle-income countries, where mortality rates have been low in recent years.

Measles “exploits the flaws in our collective defences”, said the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

By region, Africa has seen a 40% reduction in cases and 50% fewer deaths than before the pandemic, thanks to increased vaccination coverage. On the other hand, prevalence rose by 86% in the Eastern Mediterranean and 47% in Europe. Despite significant progress, the elimination of this disease remains “out of reach” for many countries, the WHO said.

+ Global concern over measles is rising. Should Switzerland worry?

Could get worse

The organisation is warning that the situation could deteriorate further. The vaccination coverage rate is almost 85% worldwide for the first dose and 76% for the second. But it needs to be 95% in both cases to protect communities.

The situation remains worrying in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean in this respect. A resurgence of the disease has been observed in wealthier countries where it had been eradicated, due to a stagnation or decline in immunisation, or to inequalities in vaccination coverage that expose populations.

A resurgence took place in 59 countries last year, three times the number in 2021 and the highest since the pandemic. Only the American continent did not see vaccination in at least one country, but this situation has changed this year.

This could call into question the objective of eliminating the disease by 2030. At the end of last year, just over 40% of countries had achieved it. Since then, the number has risen to almost 100 countries. The WHO also deplores the reduction in funding for vaccination and monitoring.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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