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The word "crisis" should not be used lightly, and public health officials know it better than anyone else. After reviewing ongoing research on measles this year, however, the directors of WHO and UNICEF are personally convinced.
"We are in a measles crisis," they said in a recent opinion piece for CNN.
It remains to be seen if their agencies finally issue the same warning, but so far the data show that this trend is irrefutable. In the first three months of 2019, a preliminary investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded a 300% increase in measles cases worldwide.
In some regions, like Africa, the numbers have increased by 700% compared to the previous year. And these are just the ones we know. The WHO estimates that more than 90% of all cases in the world are unreported.
"By the end of your reading, we estimate that at least 40 people – most children – will be infected with this rapidly evolving, life-threatening disease," write UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, in their common room.
Today, all regions of the world are experiencing a resurgence of measles cases, even in countries with high vaccination rates, such as the United States, Thailand and Israel. Again, just a blanket gap or a hole in the boat for things to get out of hand.
At present, measles outbreaks are continuing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sudan, Thailand and Ukraine.
And while many people in these countries are clamoring for vaccines, the recent public health emergency in New York has more to do with medical hesitation.
Earlier this year, the WHO reported that fear of vaccines was one of the most serious threats to human health in 2019 and that a few months later, this concern seemed entirely justified.
With measles outbreaks in New York, Washington, California and New Jersey, the United States has already had more cases of this disease than every 12 months of 2018 combined.
(CDC)
"We welcome the first steps taken by digital companies such as Facebook, Amazon and YouTube to quarantine these myths about vaccines," they write, but it will take much more – not just from these online platforms, but also governments, communities – to ensure that all children receive their vaccines at the right time. "
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases on the planet. Before having an effective vaccine, almost all children had contracted this potentially life-threatening disease at the age of 15 years.
Since 2000, an estimated 20 million lives have been saved through this vaccination, and that's essentially what is at stake. Administrators warn that if the world does not defend science, health and vaccines, more people will pay the price of our complacency.
If it's not a crisis now, it will be soon.
Preliminary data have been published online by the World Health Organization.
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