Measles cases in Europe rise from 900 to 42,000 in one year

E.P.

Madrid

Europe saw a high rise in cases of measles, a highly contagious viral disease that predominantly affects children, last year, from 941 cases reported in 2022 to 42,200 cases in 2023, according to the World Health Organization.

Although measles is a disease that occurs primarily among children, measles affected all age groups in 2023, with significant differences in the age distribution of cases between countries. Overall, two out of five cases were in children aged 1 to 4 years and one in five cases were in adults aged 20 years or older. Year to date through October, there were 20,918 hospitalized cases and two countries reported five measles-related deaths.

The resurgence of the disease, which can have serious complications such as blindness, encephalitis, acute diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia, is largely due to a decline in vaccination coverage in countries between 2020 and 2022.

Vaccine

Reported national first-dose vaccine coverage in the European region fell from 96% in 2019 to 93% in 2022, while second-dose coverage fell from 92% in 2019 to 91% in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. In total, between 2020 and 2022, more than 1.8 million infants were not vaccinated against measles, also known as “el colorin.”

The resumption of travel and the lifting of social and public health measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic have increased the risk of cross-border transmission of the disease and its spread within communities, especially among the unvaccinated or under-vaccinated.

Cases have been reported in many countries where measles has been declared eliminated as an endemic disease, so unless very high levels of systematic childhood vaccination are maintained, these countries are at risk of large outbreaks.