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Measles cases are increasing in Europe and have been reported by four countries previously considered to have eliminated them, including the United Kingdom, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.
WHO has urged European countries to step up their vaccination efforts, based on 2018 data, that measles is no longer considered eradicated in the UK, Greece, Czech Republic and in Albania.
The United Kingdom reported 953 cases in 2018 and 489 for the first six months of 2019. During the same periods, Greece notified 2 193 and 28 cases, Albania 1 466 and 475 and the Republic Czech 217 and 569.
In the 53 countries of Europe, 90,000 cases of measles were recorded during the first half of this year, already more than for 2018, said Siddhartha Datta, of WHO's regional office for # 39; Europe.
"Each of these countries is an example with extremely high national immunization coverage, so these are not countries with particularly weak systems," said Kate O. Brien, director of the WHO Immunization Department. WHO.
"It's the alarm bell that rings all over the world: being able to achieve high national coverage is not enough, it has to be in every community, and every family for every child," he said. she said.
Measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that can kill or invalidate children, is considered eliminated when there is no transmission of endemic disease for 12 months or more in a specific geographical area.
Although the disease is highly contagious, it can be avoided altogether with a two-dose vaccine, but the WHO has been sounding alarm bells over the past few months about vaccination rates.
Three times higher than 2018: WHO
WHO reported that most parts of the world are experiencing an increase in the number of measles cases.
Nearly 365,000 cases have been reported worldwide this year, the highest number since 2006, said WHO, noting that they accounted for only a fraction of the 6.7 million suspected cases.
According to the most recent figures from the WHO, measles reportedly made 109,000 deaths in 2017.
The largest epidemics occur in the Democratic Republic of Congo (155,460 cases), Madagascar (127,454) and Ukraine (54,246), he said.
The United States has registered 1,215 cases of measles in 30 states, the worst epidemic since 1992, health officials said Monday.
"The reestablishment of measles transmission is worrisome," warned Gunter Pfaff, chairman of the European Regional Audit Commission of the WHO for the elimination of measles and rubella.
"If high immunization coverage is not achieved and maintained in all communities, children and adults will suffer needlessly and some will die tragically," she added.
Less confidence in vaccines in the richest countries
Health experts say the virus has spread to school-aged children whose parents refused to give them the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease.
Confidence in vaccines – among the most effective and most widely used medical products in the world – is highest in the poorest countries but lower in richer countries where skepticism has allowed persistence of the disease. epidemics such as measles, revealed a global study published in June.
The resurgence of measles is partly at the origin of the so-called "anti-vax" movement, which spreads false claims that vaccinations are the cause, among others, of autism.
As a result of this campaign, many people, especially in the United States but also in Europe, have chosen not to vaccinate their children against measles, which reduces the vaccination rate and endangers the people around them. .
A study conducted in 2018 by the Gallup Institute showed that 33% of French and 21.5% of French did not consider that measles vaccines were "safe".
In comparison, Bangladesh and Rwanda had the highest levels of confidence, with almost 100% believing that they were safe.
"Misinformation about vaccines is as contagious and dangerous as the diseases it spreads," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement this week.
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