A spokesman for the World Health Organization said today, Tuesday, that the organization has received reports of at least 228 probable cases of hepatitis in children, with dozens of other cases under investigation.
“The World Health Organization has received reports from 20 countries that at least 228 have been monitored until May 1, with 50 other cases under investigation,” Tarik Jasarevic said in a press briefing in Geneva.
Health authorities around the world are investigating a mysterious increase in severe hepatitis cases among young children, which has led to at least one death.
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World Health Organization
A global health warning about an “old disease” threatens children again
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
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 might 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 following 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 once morest the disease began in the second half of the twentieth century.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have warned of a high risk of a measles outbreak, with an increase in the number of cases globally by nearly 80% in 2022, compared to 2021.
A statement issued by the two agencies on Wednesday stated that 17,338 measles cases were reported globally during January and February 2022, compared to 9,665 cases in the same period in 2021. The two agencies noted that there had been 21 outbreaks of the disease “on a large and confusing scale”, many of them in Africa and the Mediterranean region.
“Pandemic-related obstacles, growing inequality in access to vaccines, and diversion of resources from routine immunization services have left far too many children unprotected from measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” the statement said. The statement continued, that cities and countries easing preventive measures for “Covid-19”, increased the risk of an outbreak of measles.
“It is encouraging that people in many communities are beginning to feel protected from COVID-19 to re-engage in more social activities,” UNICEF Executive Director Kathryn Russell said in the statement. “However, this may create favorable conditions for the spread of diseases such as measles in Places where children do not receive routine immunization services.
In 2020, 23 million children did not have access to basic childhood vaccinations, and vaccination campaigns for children were recently hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan.
The two agencies reported that since April 1, “57 vaccination campaigns once morest vaccine-preventable diseases have been scheduled and postponed in 43 countries since the beginning of the pandemic, affecting 203 million people, the majority of whom are children.” They pointed out that 19 of them are campaigns to prevent measles, which puts 73 million children at risk of contracting this disease due to a lack of vaccines.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF indicated that “the coverage of two doses of safe and effective measles vaccines protects by 95% or more.” The two agencies reported that the coverage rate for the first dose in the five countries with the largest number of cases last year was lower than 70% in 2020.
And the US Centers for Disease Control and Control (CDC) reported in data published last week that measles vaccinations among kindergarten students fell to 93.6% during the 2020-2021 school year.
In a statement on the vaccination data, Dr. Shannon Stockley, deputy director of the Division of Immunization Services, said they were concerned that a lack of routine immunization services might expose vulnerable children to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
The World Health Organization warned, on Tuesday, that the significant decline in the number of Covid tests being conducted has left the world in a state of blindness to the continuing development of the virus and its potentially dangerous mutations.
The United Nations agency said that reported injuries and deaths also recorded a significant decline.
“Last week, more than 15,000 deaths were reported to the World Health Organization, which is the lowest weekly total number recorded since March 2020,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
While Ghebreyesus welcomed this new trend in the virus’ trajectory, he cautioned that the lower numbers may also be a result of the significant decline in the number of tests being conducted to detect infections.
He added, “This blinds us even more to the patterns of transmission and evolution of the virus,” commenting, “When it comes to a deadly virus, ignorance is not a blessing.”
William Rodriguez, who heads the Global Diagnostic Alliance “Find”, also expressed his anger that in recent months many governments simply stopped conducting HIV tests.
Speaking during his participation in the press conference hosted by the World Health Organization, Rodriguez noted that in the past four months, amid the rise in Omicron infections, “test rates have decreased from 70 to 90 percent worldwide.”
The irony is that the decline in the number of tests came at a time when the possibility of reaching accurate results regarding the infection became more than ever.
“We now have unprecedented capabilities to find out what’s going on,” Rodriguez noted.
“However, since today’s testing was the first casualty of a global decision to let our guard down, we have gone blind and oblivious to what is happening with this virus,” he added.
The Covid epidemic, according to official figures, has killed more than six million people since it first appeared in China in late 2019, but the real number is believed to be at least three times more.
While many countries are canceling preventive measures and trying to return to a semblance of normality, the World Health Organization stresses that the epidemic is not over yet.
“This virus will not disappear just because countries will stop looking for it,” Tedros said, noting that “it is still spreading and still mutating and killing.”
He warned that “the emergence of a dangerous new mutant still poses a real threat,” adding that “despite the decrease in the number of deaths, we still do not understand the long-term consequences of infection for survivors.”