The World Health Organization has issued an urgent warning about measles after an ‘alarming’ 30-fold rise in cases across Europe.
The UN agency reported a huge increase in the number of people affected by the disease, which it said had “accelerated in recent months”. More than 30,000 cases were reported between January and October last year, compared to 941 cases in all of 2022 – a more than 30-fold increase.
Two in five cases involved children between one and four years old. One in five involved people aged 20 and over. The trend is expected to worsen if people do not vaccinate their children against the disease, the WHO said.
The warning came just days after Britain declared a national emergency amid a surge in cases, launching a campaign to encourage parents to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children.
Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said: “We have not only seen a 30-fold increase in measles cases in the region, but also almost 21,000 hospital admissions and five measles-related deaths (reported in two countries).
“Vaccination is the only way to protect children against this potentially dangerous disease. Vaccination efforts are urgently needed to halt transmission and prevent further spread.”
Measles can lead to serious complications, lifelong disability and death. It can affect the lungs and brain and cause pneumonia, meningitis, blindness and seizures.
“It is vital that all countries are prepared to rapidly detect and respond to measles outbreaks in a timely manner, which could jeopardize progress towards measles eradication,” Kluge added.
The WHO said falling vaccination rates were to blame, but also that more people traveled abroad after Covid-19, increasing the risk of cross-border disease transmission and community spread.
The WHO European region includes 53 countries, including Russia and some in Central Asia, and 40 of the recorded cases of measles in 2023, the report said. Russia and Kazakhstan fared the worst, with 10,000 cases each. In Western Europe, Britain had the most cases, with 183.
Vaccination rates for the first dose of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, have fallen across Europe from 96% in 2019 to 93% in 2022. Uptake of the second dose fell from 92% to 91% over the same period.
About 1.8 million babies in the WHO European Region were not vaccinated against measles between 2020 and 2022.
Measles vaccination rates have fallen around the world.
In 2022, 83% of children received a first measles vaccine during their first year of life, up from 81% coverage in 2021, but down from 86% before the pandemic, the WHO said.
In 2021, there were an estimated 128,000 measles deaths worldwide, mostly among under-vaccinated or unvaccinated children under the age of five.
In Britain, the head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned last week that Britain was on a “pathway where things could get much worse” in terms of the spread of measles.
Professor Dame Jenny Harries said ‘coordinated action’ was needed to tackle the virus, suggesting most people were not against their child getting the MMR jab but needed more information to have confidence in their decision.
She added: “What we are seeing with measles at the moment is that people have forgotten what a serious disease it is… We have had very high vaccination rates, especially for young families, but they are low at the moment.”
Figures from the UKHSA show that there have been 216 confirmed cases of measles and 103 probable cases in the West Midlands since October 1.
Last week the UKHSA declared a national emergency, which it said was an internal mechanism that flagged the growing risk to public health and allowed it to focus work on specific areas.