UNICEF is alarmed by the resurgence of measles, Brazil in the lead

Unicef ​​warned Friday against the resurgence of measles in the world and noted that ten countries, including Brazil, Ukraine and France, were responsible for about three quarters of the total increase in cases in 2018.

Worldwide, 98 countries have reported more measles cases in 2018 than in 2017, hindering progress in the treatment of this highly preventable, but potentially life-threatening disease, said the UN Fund for HIV. 39, childhood in a statement.

"This is an alarm signal, we have a safe, effective and affordable vaccine against a highly contagious disease, a vaccine that has saved nearly a million lives each year over the past two years." decades, "said Henrietta Fore, executive director of Unicef.

The Ukraine, the Philippines and Brazil experienced the largest annual increase in cases.

In 2018, 35,120 cases were reported in Ukraine, about 30,000 more than in 2017.

And according to the government, 24,042 more people were infected in the first two months of 2019.

In Brazil, 10,262 cases were recorded in 2018, none compared to the previous year.

In la France, the increase between 2017 and 2018 was 2,269 cases, according to Unicef.

Poor health infrastructure, civil unrest, low community awareness, complacency and reluctance to vaccinate have caused these outbreaks in both developed and developing countries, said the agency.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned of a measles outbreak in the world, with an increase of about 50% of cases recorded last year compared to 2017, making 136,000 deaths.

The increase in this disease, more contagious than the flu or tuberculosis, is linked in some countries to claims with no medical basis that link the measles vaccine (MMR vaccine) to autism, and which are partially disseminated in social networks by members of the movement called "anti-vaccines".

Last month, the WHO He ranked "vaccine doubts" among the top 10 global health threats in 2019.

However, the WHO He recently recalled that "the main reason" for the failure of childhood immunization is that "those who need it most (…) do not have access to the vaccine". AFP