Measles cases in Europe are highest in a decade, pockets refusing vaccination | Life

LONDON, Feb. 8 – Europe registered a record number of measles cases last year, in part because of the increasing number of pockets in which parents refuse to vaccinate their children, the organization said yesterday. World Health Organization.

At the same time, said the WHO, a record number of children are receiving the vaccine, which gives hope that the increase in infections may not last.

"Progress has been uneven across and within countries, leaving more and more groups of people unprotected and leading to a record number of people affected by the virus by 2018," he said. the press release.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that can lead to hearing loss and brain disorders in children and can even lead to death in severe cases.

Immunization coverage should be about 95% to prevent the virus from circulating in communities, so-called "collective immunity".

In many countries, anti-vaccine activists seek to discourage parents from vaccinating their children, despite strong scientific evidence of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

In Italy, the Five Star Movement, an anti-establishment co-leader, questioned the safety of some vaccines and strongly denounced efforts to make vaccinations mandatory.

In the WHO European Region, which covers nearly 900 million people, some 82,600 people in 47 countries contracted measles last year – the highest number in the decade. Of these, 72 cases were fatal. Six of the 53 countries have not reported.

In 34 countries, coverage with a second dose of measles vaccine was estimated at less than 95%.

"Local (vaccination) gaps still provide an open door for the virus," WHO European Director Zsuzsanna Jakab said in a statement.

Professor Arne Akbar, president of the British Society for Immunology, said the figures were "extremely worrying".

Heidi Larson, a specialist in vaccines and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the increase in the number of cases was a "call to the importance of building confidence in the vaccination".

A report published last year by the European Commission and written by a team led by Larson revealed that vaccination coverage against measles had decreased in 12 EU countries since 2010 and that seven of the 10 countries with the lowest vaccine confidence in the world was in Europe. . – Reuters