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According to the European Regional Audit Commission for the Elimination of Measles and Rubella (RVC), four European countries – Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and the United Kingdom – have lost their status of measles elimination.
In the United States, officials have warned that the measles epidemics underway in New York have put the United States on the same path.
"We note a worrying trend that all regions are experiencing an increase in measles, with the exception of the Americas region, which has seen a slight decline," Kate O'Brien, MDCM, MPH, FRCPC, Director of the WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said at a press conference. "We have countries with low immunization coverage, which contributes to the measles epidemics, but we also see that countries have very high immunization coverage against measles, yet epidemics occur."
British health authorities announced earlier this month that the measles elimination status had been canceled. The three additional countries announced today by the WHO mark the first time that there have been four reversals of elimination since the start of the RVC verification process in 2012.
Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and the United Kingdom have lost their status of measles elimination.
Source: CDC /Jim Goodson, MPH
According to O'Brien, countries with very high immunization coverage against measles risk losing their elimination status due to small pockets or communities with insufficient coverage to prevent an outbreak. O'Brien noted that measles outbreaks can be caused by and affect not only young children, but also adolescents, adolescents and adults whose immunization is inadequate or incomplete.
According to the WHO, an estimated 90,000 cases of measles were reported during the first half of 2019 in Europe, already more than the 84,000 cases reported for the whole of 2018. It was verified that 35 countries in the region had reached or supported measles. elimination in 2018, compared with 37 in 2018, said WHO.
The agency said it would continue to internally classify the ongoing measles circulation in the region as a second-year emergency – a designation allowing it to "mobilize the necessary technical, financial and human resources to support the affected countries, "the statement said. .
"The considerable efforts made to control this highly contagious disease have allowed us to make considerable progress towards regional elimination", Zsuzsanna Jakab, Ph.D.WHO Regional Director for Europe, the statement said. "However, the ongoing measles outbreaks demonstrate that more is needed. By activating the emergency response, the WHO is more focused on the elimination of measles and has strengthened its action. "
A country is considered to have eliminated measles if no strain of the virus has been circulating for 12 months or more, if vaccination coverage is high and if good measles identification systems are in place.
The United States will lose the status of measles-free country reached in 2000 if a case related to one of the two outbreaks in New York and Rockland County (New York) is recorded in October, recently confirmed to a CDC spokesperson Infectious Diseases News. As of August 26, nearly 1,000 cases had been reported in both outbreaks and more than 1,200 cases were reported in 2019 in the United States. – by Joe Gramigna
Reference:
WHO. The European Region is losing ground in its efforts to eliminate measles. http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2019/european-region-loses-ground-in-effort-tolocal-measles. Accessed August 28, 2019.
Disclosures: Jakab and O'Brien do not report any relevant financial information.
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