The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have warned of what they describe as an “ideal storm” for an outbreak of measles among children.
The two organizations said that measles cases worldwide increased by 79 percent in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period last year.
Approximately 17,338 measles cases were reported worldwide in January and February 2022, compared to 9,665 cases during the same two months in 2021.
According to the statistics, 21 major outbreaks of the disease occurred in the past 12 months, from April 2021 until April 2022, and most of them were reported in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region, and this number is likely to be much higher.
Africa recorded a 400 percent increase in measles infection rates, reaching more than 17,000 cases between January and March.
The World Health Organization said the increase in cases was “a worrying sign of the increased risk of the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases”, and warned of a “larger outbreak affecting millions of children”.
She noted that the disruptions associated with the Corona epidemic and the inequality in the distribution of vaccines leave children without protection from vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles.
“As measles is a highly contagious disease, cases tend to emerge quickly when vaccination levels are low. Agencies are concerned that measles outbreaks could also warn of outbreaks of other diseases that are not spreading quickly,” the organization said.
Measles is a viral disease that spreads through the air, is highly contagious, and can be dangerous and cause health complications, especially in children under the age of 5.
Figures in the United States indicate that one in five people infected with measles is hospitalized, while one in 1,000 patients develops brain swelling, and one in three out of 1,000 infected people die even with the best health care.
The World Health Organization stresses that the measles virus weakens the immune system, making children more susceptible to contracting other infectious diseases for several months after infection.
In 2020, 23 million children around the world did not receive basic vaccinations, the highest number since 2009, and 3.7 million more than the figure recorded in 2019.
Measles caused the deaths of hundreds of millions around the world in the 16th and 19th centuries, before the development of vaccines against the disease began in the second half of the twentieth century.