A 79% increase in measles cases was recorded in the world last year, the World Health Organization announced. At the same time, there is an appeal for the intensification of vaccinations.
On Tuesday, February 20, the World Health Organization expressed its concern about the rapid spread of measles in the world. More than 306,000 cases were recorded in 2023, a figure representing a 79% increase in one year, and he called for intensified vaccinations.
“We are extremely concerned about what is happening with measles,” Natasha Crowcroft, technical adviser on measles and rubella at the World Health Organization, told reporters.
“There has been a sustained increase in measles cases in all but one WHO region,” the North, Central and South America region, he said.
But as numbers rise around the world, the WHO fears the Americas region will be hit by measles outbreaks in its turn.
The latest global data (from February 2024) speak of 306,291 cases reported in 2023 to the WHO, compared to 171,156 cases for 2022, i.e. an increase of 79%, but the organization emphasizes that the real numbers are much higher.
According to WHO estimates, in 2022 there were 9.2 million cases.
The increase in cases of this highly contagious disease, which can cause fatal complications and is transmitted through the air, is attributed to a decline in vaccination coverage recorded during the Covid years.
“The prevention of measles and rubella is no longer a global and government priority due to competing problems such as Covid-19, economic crises, conflicts, etc.,” the WHO said in a statement sent to the media.
Prevention of measles requires that 95% of children have had two doses of measles vaccine. But globally, vaccination coverage stands at 83% and has not returned to the level of 86% it was in 2019.
Crowcroft said there were 51 major measles outbreaks last year, compared to 32 in 2022.
The WHO does not yet have results for 2023, but “I can tell you that in 2022 the number of deaths increased by 43%, according to our models, to over 130,000 deaths due to measles,” explained the WHO specialist , who spoke via video conference from Cairo.
In the face of the surge in cases last year, “we also expect an increase in the number of deaths in 2023”, but the data will not be available until November, Natasha Crowcroft added.
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