Measles in the European Union and Central Asia reach the largest number in more than 25 years health
127,350 servings were reported in Europe and Central Asia in 2024, twice the number of cases reported in the previous year and the highest number since 1997, according to the analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF).
In a report published on Thursday, 13 years old, UN health experts say Romania has the largest number of measles infections, with more than 30,000 cases, followed by Kazakhstan, which reported 28,147 people with the disease.
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According to UNICEF, about 40 % of measles infections in Europe and Central Asia were in children under the age of 5 and more than 50 % of the injured should be transferred to the hospital.
“It is an invitation to wake up.”
Measles are among the most infectious diseases in the world and are spread by the transformed air virus. The full vaccination chart, which consists of two doses, has 97 % effective in preventing diseases, which usually affects the respiratory system and causes symptoms such as fever, cough, liquid nose and rash. In severe cases, measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis, dehydration and blindness.
“The measles are returned, it is an invitation to wake up,” said Han Klog, the director of Europe, in a statement. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.”
The World Health Organization and UNICEF notes that in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Montenegro is less than 70 % and 50 % of children, respectively, they were immunized against measles in the past five years – scientists estimate that more than 95 % of the population needs immunization to prevent disease outbreaks.
After a decrease in fortification coverage during the Corona virus pandemic, measles increased by 2023 and 2024, with vaccination rates in many countries lower than they were before the appearance of Covid-19. The United Nations states that the number of measles in Europe represents a third of about 359,521 infections last year.
Fears about the security of the measles vaccine continued for decades after the British doctor Andrew Wickfield and his colleagues published an article in 1998 – which has been photographed since then – linking measles, mumps, and vaccine made of surgery made of autism. No evidence was found on any causal contact and Wickfield was licensed to practice medicine in the UK that was canceled.
The British authorities said last month that there were more than 200 cases reported in the United Kingdom, and it is expected much. “It has not been too late for vaccination,” says Ben Kaisan Dabush, a global health professor at the London College for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which warns that wrong information can travel. “Even a small decrease in the adherence to the vaccine can have devastating consequences.”
In the United States, measles spread in Texas and New Mexico continues to spread and now up to 250 cases, including death in non -imprisoned people.
*This content was translated with the help of artificial intelligence tools and it was revised by the editorial team Astadu. Learn more about our artificial intelligence policy.
